Given the direction of previous Trump administration environmental decisions, the Environmental Protection Agency’s April announcement halting the continued escalation of Obama-era Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for cars and light trucks is a bit of a poker tell. The announcement signals an increasing likelihood that, at some point this summer, the EPA will freeze fuel economy standards around their 2020 levels (38-39 miles per gallon) for the entire model-year fleet of cars and light-duty trucks, rather than continuing to raise them to 54 mpg by 2025.

At the outset of the Trump administration, American carmakers complained vigorously about struggling to meet the rising mandate after 2020, arguing that it couldn’t be done without losing large amounts of money and perhaps undermining the fleet’s safety features. That said, any plateauing of standards for cars and trucks over the next several years should not be interpreted as either a terrible idea for the environment or a victory for automakers and polluters. Instead, it’s an opportunity to end a terrible regulatory system that failed to deliver on its promises for decades.