Former Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy said President Trump’s deregulatory agenda makes him like a bad mom who feeds her children too much cake just because they demanded it.
McCarthy was speaking at a Harvard University climate change forum when she was asked by an audience member how she felt about Trump deciding to rescind her decision to raise fuel economy standards for cars and light trucks.
“I don’t like it,” she said. “That was a very simple answer to the question.”
McCarthy went on to suggest that the auto industry would regret asking Trump to roll back her decision.
“Everybody goes to the president to ask for everything,” she said. “And he said yes. Oops.”
It’s like a “little kid eating birthday cake” and “they’re sick now” because “mom” said yes to too much too soon, McCarthy said. She predicted an auto-industry reversal at some point.
Automakers had lobbied Trump to reconsider McCarthy’s decision to increase the fuel-economy standards, even though many companies continue to roll out fuel efficient car models, along with electric models that would help them meet the standards.
“Technology is changing,” and “the business sector needs certainty,” McCarthy explained. “Uncertainty … is not beneficial” for a sector that needs to begin planning new production lines years in advance, she told the forum.
She explained that the EPA under former President Barack Obama looked at “whether or not we were moving too aggressively” on the strictness of the 2017-2025 model-year vehicle standards. EPA’s final assessment was “it is easier now” to comply with the standards because of the decisions companies have made that support electric cars and more fuel efficient vehicles. Under Obama, she signed off on raising the standards from 36 miles per gallon to well over 50 miles per gallons by 2025.
Trump this year rescinded McCarthy’s decision to move ahead with the stricter auto standards, and Trump’s EPA is currently in the process of redoing the Obama-era review that is expected to lead to a new set of less restrictive regulations.
Her comments come as a growing number of countries like China and municipalities like Paris are phasing out, or outright banning, fossil fuel-powered cars and trucks in the next 13 years, and switching exclusively to battery-powered electric vehicles.
