White House backing off efficiency standard it’s suing over, report says

Enlarge / Traffic moves through an interchange along Interstate 580 on July 25, 2019 in Oakland, California. (credit: Justin Sullivan | Getty Images)

The White House is apparently blinking in a contentious lawsuit over fuel efficiency standards, leaving a number of major automakers that had backed the administration in an awkward position.

The administration is considering abandoning a rule that would freeze fuel efficiency requirements at 2020 levels and instead replacing it with a rule that would require fleetwide improvements of about 1.5% per year, The Wall Street Journal reports today.

The move is the latest twist in a long and complicated standoff that began basically as soon as the Trump administration did. The man himself promised on the campaign trail to gut the Environmental Protection Agency and roll back Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The chain of events so far has led to a faceoff among automakers, as Honda, Ford, Volkswagen, and BMW back more stringent guidelines out of California, and General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, Hyundai, Mazda, Nissan, and Kia stand with the White House against the rule.

Read 13 remaining paragraphs | Comments