It would be nice if the leader of the Environmental Protection Agency truly believed in protecting the environment and people. Failing that, it would be nice if he’d at least get his facts straight.
Unfortunately for American consumers, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, who has a long history of attacking the agency he now heads, seems to believe everything corporate lobbyists tell him. A case in point: his decision to roll back carefully crafted fuel-economy standards for passenger cars and trucks, which would save consumers $3,200 per car and $4,800 per truck over the lifetime of their vehicles. He’s making these savings vanish into thin air and breaking a promise the government and automakers made to the American people.
Every argument he raises against improving fuel economy is just plain wrong. For example, national fuel-economy standards grade automobiles on a curve: SUVs don’t have to get as many miles per gallon as small cars do. But Pruitt ignores this fact and tries to argue that the popularity of SUVs somehow makes it harder for automakers to meet fuel-economy standards.
Of course, Americans love their SUVs and pickup trucks — but they love them even more when they go farther on every gallon of gas, and sales data proves it. SUVs that have boosted fuel efficiency by 15 percent or more have enjoyed sales that are 20 percent higher than SUVs whose fuel efficiency has increased by less than 15 percent.
By design, the fuel-economy standards phase in gradually over the years, because it takes time to develop new models. And over these years, we’ve learned that automakers’ compliance costs have turned out to be lower than originally projected, while clean-car technology costs are dropping fast. Yet rollback proponents falsely claim these costs are high.
To ease the transition to making more fuel-efficient vehicles and ensuring that manufacturers had enough time to comply, automakers were given temporary extra credits and flexibility for several years. Now that those breaks are coming to an end, as planned, automakers are pointing to dwindling credits and less flexibility as evidence that it’s suddenly getting harder to meet the standards. The truth is they’re dragging their feet, and the EPA seems poised to reward their bad behavior.
If you simply look at the monetary costs and benefits associated with the stronger fuel-economy standards that Pruitt plans to roll back, about 80 percent of the benefits take the form of consumer savings. This is extra money that helps balance the budgets of American families and businesses alike across the country.
Over the lifetime of the vehicle, that extra money is helping to pay for other improvements, including safety. Our latest research shows that drivers of “all-new” vehicles introduced in 2018 will save an average of $2,605, compared to their 2011 models, which eclipses the average sticker price increase of $2,127. So not only will fuel savings cover any cost of fuel saving technology, but also all of the other costs that go into carmaker price increases like new safety features, technology and designs.
As fuel economy improves, more advanced safety features, such as blind-spot detection and lane keeping assist, are being added to these “all-new” models, proving that when it comes to protection for your family and fuel savings, you don’t have to choose. Fuel efficiency makes safety affordable.
And there’s a gross misunderstanding on the EPA’s part about low-income consumers, who spend more on gasoline as a percentage of income, and who need more efficient vehicles the most. People living paycheck to paycheck overwhelmingly tend to buy used vehicles. Efficient new cars eventually become dramatically cheaper – but still very efficient – used vehicles. And yet supporters of the fuel-economy rollback have the gall to claim that stronger fuel economy standards will somehow hurt low-income households — a claim that has been thoroughly refuted.
Moreover, today’s cars are the safest, most efficient, most desirable cars, trucks and SUVs in history, and consumers are responding by buying them in record numbers. Each year more new, fuel-efficient, and safer vehicles are driving on our nation’s roads, while less safe and less fuel-efficient vehicles are being retired. This means our national fleet is becoming more fuel efficient and safer each year — with fuel economy standards paying for safety improvements
Rather than listen to these facts, and the wishes of the American people, this administration seems to be bowing to the desires of corporate lobbyists and polluting industries. And they don’t even bother coming up with convincing arguments to justify their terrible decisions.
We want to see EPA get the facts straight, fulfill its responsibility and maintain strong national fuel economy standards that are making the newest, safest cars more affordable than ever for consumers.
Mark Cooper is director of research for the Consumer Federation of America (CFA) and Jack Gillis is CFA’s incoming executive director and author of The Car Book. CFA is a national association of nearly 280 non-profit organizations working to advance the interests of consumers.
