The Transportation Department said Friday that former President Joe Biden’s fuel economy standards went beyond the government’s legal authority by including electric vehicles.
The department made the argument while finalizing a rule resetting corporate average fuel economy standards, also known as CAFE.
The action followed an announcement in January by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy that the department would review Biden’s fuel economy standards, which require vehicles to achieve a certain mileage for every gallon of gas as a way to reduce vehicle emissions.
“The previous administration illegally used CAFE standards as an electric vehicle mandate — raising new car prices and reducing safety,” Duffy said in a statement Friday. “Resetting CAFE standards as Congress intended will lower vehicle costs and ensure the American people can purchase the cars they want.”
The new DOT rule, “Resetting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Program,” says the Biden administration accounted for EVs when promulgating the standards, resulting in more stringent standards, since EVs have a higher fuel economy than gas-powered vehicles.
Biden’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration “assumed significant numbers of EVs would continue to be produced regardless of the standards set by the agency, in turn increasing the level of standards that could be considered maximum feasible,” the final rule says.
The new rule ensures that the standards are aligned with President Donald Trump’s executive orders to slash policies that promote EVs and undo what Republicans have characterized as a de facto national “EV mandate” implemented by Biden.
Last June, the Biden administration finalized stringent CAFE standards to reduce vehicle emissions and boost the transition toward EVs. The Biden rule increased fuel economy standards by 2% per year for passenger cars and light trucks. At the time, the administration said it would save vehicle owners more than $600 in fuel over the lifetime of their vehicles. The rule also required heavy-duty vehicles to increase fuel efficiency by 10% per year for model years 2030-2032.
