The environmental organization known as Sierra Club said in a statement that gutting the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards will make cars burn more gas and American families burn more cash.
"The current standards save drivers thousands of dollars each year by requiring manufacturers to produce more fuel-efficient cars," said the Sierra Club. "Weakening them further hurts our economic well-being at a time when families are already burdened by rising costs."
The CAFE standards were put in place by the Obama administration and tightened by the Biden administration. According to Sierra Club, this rollback would "move the auto industry backwards, keeping polluting cars on our roads for years to come and threatening the health of millions of Americans," particularly children and the elderly.
"This dangerous proposal adds to the long list of ways the Trump administration is dismantling our clean air and public health protections," said Sierra Club.
As a result, the Sierra Club promised that it will "continue to push back against this administration's egregious attacks on clean transportation.”
President Trump said in the Oval Office that eliminating the standards will drive down the price of new vehicles and keep U.S. automakers competitive.
Larry Behrens of Power the Future agreed. He told AFN that he thinks this is "an absolutely critical announcement," not just for freedom of choice, letting Americans buy the car that they want to buy, but it's also going to drive down prices for the cars that consumers want to buy.
"When the government put their fingers on the scale and said 'you have to include these components, you have to continually put technology that American consumers weren't really asking for,’ that's done nothing but drive up prices,” says Behrens.
According to him, that is something that the Biden administration may not have cared about, but the Trump administration definitely does. Automakers executives were at the White House for the announcement.
"I'm excited that car manufacturers get to respond to what their customers want, versus what Washington wants," states Behrens.
