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| Donald Trump, seen here overjoyed after some ICE raids, is getting rid of fuel efficiency standards in cars, offering false hope of "affordability" while also doing his bit to worsen climate change. |
I gotta hand it to him, he's right about that in one very unwelcome way. The climate of the U.S. - and the world - is toastier than it's been in maybe 100,000 years, thanks to fossil fuel-driven climate change.
Trump is doing this by finding every way possible to make climate change even worse. As we know, he's convinced it's a hoax, so why fight it, right?
The latest came on Wednesday with his announcement on fuel efficiency standards.
"President Trump on Wednesday said his administration would 'reset' fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars in an effort to put a lid on rising auto prices, as the administration battles inflation and an affordability crisis."
That's the way it's being framed anyway. And it's true we do have a big problem with inflation and affordability,. But if you're in the market for a car now or in the next few years, or if you just want a general break from high costs, you're out of luck on this one.
"'The announcement is a shift in long-term fuel economy targets for model year 2031 vehicles,' said Mark Schemer, Cox Automotive's director of industry insights communications.
'Those targets are being lowered, which may change automaker long-term strategy and product development plans and pricing, but will have little impact o prices near term,' he said."
Besides, there's evidence that the regulations make cars more expensive. A 2023 Consumer Reports analysis found that, after adjusting for inflation, vehicle prices didn't increase between 2003 through 2021, which is the period studied. This, even as average fuel economy went up by 30 percent and lifesaving technology was added to vehicles.
Fuel economy standards also reduce costs over the lifetime of the vehicle because the car's owner ends up paying less for fuel than their neighbor who has that gas guzzler.
The fuel efficiency standards were introduced in the Biden administration. Trump is always eager to ditch policies by any of his predecessors, whether those policies were good or bad.
The standards Trump is getting rid of are called the Corporate Average Fuel Economy or CAFE standards, as NPR explains, "requires that the entire fleet of vehicles sold by a given automaker, on average, get more fuel-efficient over time. Automakers who fall short have previously needed to either pay hefty fines, or buy credits from a company that over performs on efficiency, like Tesla and other all-electric automakers."
The Biden rules called for vehicles to get 2% more efficient each year. Trump now would have the efficiency increase by 0.5% annually.
The Trump administration had already eliminated the fines associated with the efficiency rules that he's not dumping.
This is latest among many examples of Trump's efforts to cancel anything having to do with clean energy and EV's. He has gotten rid of a tax credit that people used to buy TVs; and ended a tax credit for installing next June, earlier than planned.
Trump is also dropping a rule that sets tough standards for soot pollution. Back in the 2024, the final year of the Biden administration, which seems like it was centuries ago, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule that set strict standard on soot pollution.
The EPA was trying to reduce the fine particles in the air coming from cars, trucks and industry, because that stuff causes thousands of premature deaths a year.
Probably a good idea, since on top of the cars and trucks, we're getting more and more wildfire smoke in recent years, which also has tons of fine particles that are dangerous to breathe.
So, we are either getting new rules, or eliminating rules in what feels like an effort to create a hotter, more polluted world. Gee, that seems healthy! Next thing you know, bonkers Health and Human Services head honcho RFK Jr. will deem heat stroke and highly polluted air healthy, since he's already doing other things to endanger our well-being.
Not surprisingly, environmentalists are not exactly thrilled by all this.
"In one stroke, Trump is worsening three of our nation's most vexing problems: the thirst for oil, high gas pump costs and global warming," said Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign for the Center for Biological Diversity.
Previous estimates suggested the standards that Trump is getting rid of would have collectively saved Americans $23 billion in fuel costs over the years.
As The Verge tells us, "The rules were also expected to cut gasoline use by 70 billion gallos through 2050. That would avoid 710 metric tons of planet-heating carbon dioxide pollution, equivalent to taking more than 165,6 million gas guzzling passenger vehicles off the road for a year."
Donald Trump will no longer be president one of these days. But this efficiency rollback, like so many things he has done, will hurt Americans and people around the world for perhaps generations.
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