Trump administration backtracks on vehicle fuel-efficiency standards

Follow-up - Al-Wasat Iraqi newspaper

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing on Monday to finalize a plan to roll back fuel-efficiency standards so that automakers would not be required to make any additional improvements beyond the levels they achieve through the end of the decade.

Trump presents the decision as a cost-cutting measure and a reversal of what he called Biden’s "silly electric-car mandate."

But critics say the move will increase consumers' spending on fuel at a time when prices are rising due to the war in the Middle East.

The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, the world's second-largest emitter.

Under the revisions, the targeted average fuel efficiency would be set at 34.5 miles per gallon by the 2031 model year, a level U.S. cars had already reached in 2024.

By contrast, the Biden administration had aimed to raise the average to 50.4 miles per gallon, estimating that would save 64 billion gallons of fuel through 2050 and save consumers $35 billion.

The new revisions have gained support from U.S. automakers.

But Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, told AFP that his organization will challenge the decision in court, calling it "a Trojan horse of the SUV class, and it could lead to a decline in the U.S. auto industry because it exempts it from competing with the world's best technologies."

The revisions that the Biden administration had introduced, aimed at accelerating the shift toward hybrid and electric vehicles, lost their effectiveness after the "Big, Beautiful Bill" passed by the Trump administration in 2025 eliminated the financial penalties on companies that do not meet the standards.

Source: AFP