Today, the Trump Administration released the Safe Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule that would loosen the carbon emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for 2021 through 2026 and roll back the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) program, which set standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for 2017-2025 cars and light trucks. The much-anticipated rule has already inspired lawsuits by California and 17 other states, which have challenged the Administration’s weakening of fuel-efficiency rules. In a statement about the new rules, the administration said that reducing energy efficiency standards would “promote a healthy economy by bringing newer, safer, cleaner and more fuel-efficient vehicles to US roads.”
These new rules, however, are bad for business, human health, and the climate. At a time when the death toll continues to rise as wildfires rage in California and record temperatures overwhelm parts of Japan and South Korea, the Trump Administration’s announcement of vehicle rollbacks undermines global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Weakening the CAFE standards reverses hard-fought and carefully negotiated measures to reduce one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.
Although the Trump Administration says the new rule will boost US oil consumption by about 500,000 barrels of oil a day by the 2030s, these new rules aren’t likely to reverse the automotive market’s transition to a low-carbon economy, as global markets for combustion vehicles continue to shrink. Changing rules and standards create a yo-yo effect for auto industry executives that hate uncertainty. Not only do the new rules create uncertainty for automakers producing cars for the US market, these proposed rules are grossly out of step in global commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In July 2017, Volvo announced that it would eliminate cars powered solely by combustion engines after 2019. Volvo’s product will have receptive markets as Britain, France, Norway, India, and China join the growing number of countries that will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2030 or 2040. Given these global changes, it stands to reason that to stay competitive, the rest of the auto industry will soon follow Volvo’s lead and stop making combustion cars altogether.
Just as the Trump Administration can’t save the coal industry, it will not save the gas-guzzling auto industry. While in the short term this rule is ill-advised, dangerous, and wholly out of step with the rest of the world, history will show that it cannot and will not stop the global transition to a clean economy.
By Lisa Anne Hamilton, Director of Climate & Energy Program
Originally post August 2, 2018