Latest / GNN Daily Breaking News / Automakers back Trump administration's rollback of US fuel economy rules
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- 0:00Speaker 1: Major international and domestic automakers have formally intervened in federal
- 0:05Speaker 1: court to defend the Trump administration's rollback of corporate average
- 0:09Speaker 1: fuel economy standards, setting up a high-stakes legal showdown with
- 0:14Speaker 1: state officials and environmental advocacy groups. In filings submitted to
- 0:18Speaker 1: the First Circuit Court of Appeals, Industry trade groups representing
- 0:23Speaker 1: leading car manufacturers urged federal judges to uphold the administrative
- 0:27Speaker 1: rules issued by the Department of Transportation. The legal battle
- 0:32Speaker 1: follows a joint lawsuit filed by a coalition of over
- 0:36Speaker 1: 20 states, led by California and New York, aimed at
- 0:40Speaker 1: overturning the relaxed standards. The regulatory framework finalized by federal
- 0:45Speaker 1: officials lowers the projected fleet-wide average fuel economy requirement to
- 0:50Speaker 1: approximately 35 miles per gallon by model year 2031. That
- 0:55Speaker 1: figure marks a significant departure from previous federal mandates established
- 1:00Speaker 1: under the prior administration, which targeted an average efficiency threshold
- 1:05Speaker 1: exceeding 50 miles per gallon across light-duty vehicles. Industry representatives
- 1:10Speaker 1: argued in court documents that resetting the regulatory benchmarks provides
- 1:15Speaker 1: vital stability for long-term capital investments, manufacturing operations, and product
- 1:21Speaker 1: development timelines. Legal counsel for the automotive sector emphasized that
- 1:26Speaker 1: vacating the revised rules would disrupt existing production schedules for
- 1:30Speaker 1: hundreds of upcoming vehicle models, forcing manufacturers to bear billions
- 1:35Speaker 1: of dollars in compliance costs. The move aligns major auto
- 1:39Speaker 1: brands alongside energy sector associations, which have contended that aggressive
- 1:44Speaker 1: mandatory efficiency targets restrict consumer choice and artificially inflate the
- 1:49Speaker 1: retail cost of traditional internal combustion engine vehicles. Conversely, state
- 1:55Speaker 1: attorneys general and consumer advocacy organizations contend that the rollback
- 1:59Speaker 1: ignores rapid market shifts toward zero-emission vehicle adoption while increasing
- 2:04Speaker 1: long-term fuel costs for drivers. Federal environmental estimates indicate the
- 2:09Speaker 1: reduced requirements will increase total national gasoline consumption by billions
- 2:14Speaker 1: of gallons over the coming decades. With legal briefs now
- 2:18Speaker 1: submitted to the appellate court, the legal challenge remains a
- 2:22Speaker 1: key battleground over the scope of executive authority in federal
- 2:26Speaker 1: climate and energy regulations.