US moves to repeal Biden administration vehicle fuel economy standards

New U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed an order on Tuesday directing U.S. regulators to rescind landmark fuel economy standards issued under President Joe Biden that aimed to drastically reduce fuel use for cars and trucks.

In a memo, Duffy directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to reconsider the 2022 model year through 2031 model years for cars and trucks.

The agency in June said it would hike Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements to about 50.4 miles per gallon (4.67 liters per 100 km) by 2031 from 39.1 mpg currently for light-duty vehicles.

Duffy, who took office late Tuesday, also directed NHTSA to reconsider rules for heavy duty pickup trucks and vans through 2035.

"Artificially high fuel economy standards designed to meet non-statutory policy goals, such as those NHTSA has promulgated in recent years, impose large costs that render many vehicle models unaffordable for the average American family," Duffy's memo said. "They also put coercive pressure on automakers to phase out production of various models of popular (internal combustion engine) vehicles."

A group representing General Motors, Volkswagen, Toyota and other major automakers had no immediate comment.

Federal law requires NHTSA to set CAFE standards at the maximum feasible level.

The announcement is the latest move by the Trump administration to rescind efforts by the Biden administration to boost electric vehicles. The Environmental Protection Agency also plans to reconsider parallel vehicle emissions rules and rescind California's waiver to ban sales of gas-only vehicles by 2035.

The Biden administration set CAFE standards that were not as stringent as it first proposed. NHTSA had proposed boosting CAFE requirements by 2% per year for passenger cars and 4% per year for light trucks from 2027 through 2032. The final rule had no increase for light trucks for 2027 and 2028 and required 2% increases from 2029 through 2031.

NHTSA said in June the rule for passenger cars and trucks would reduce gasoline consumption by 64 billion gallons and cut emissions by 659 million metric tons. The agency said while some vehicles would be more expensive to buy, consumers would save on fuel costs and estimated net benefits of $35.2 billion.