Trump auto industry plan announced scuttling Biden era mileage, emissions standards

FOX 2 - President Donald Trump announced a federal plan calling to weaken vehicle mileage rules in the auto industry - causing reverberations among Big Three auto makers.

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The regulatory pressure is meant to relax standards on gas-powered cars and trucks, reversing policies under former President Joe Biden which pushed electric vehicles and more stringent mileage regulations.

Trump announced an effort he claimed will protect auto jobs, and help consumers with lower prices to help families. He said under Biden auto industry prices climbed 25% including 18% in one year.

"We are officially terminating Joe Biden's ridiculously burdensome (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards that imposed expensive restrictions and all sorts of problems to automakers," Trump said. "It put tremendous upward pressure on car prices. Combined with the insane Electric Vehicle mandate, Biden's regulations cost prices to soar."

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the previous CAFE standards were set using EV and hybrid models for a 62-mile-per-gallon standard which caused the cost to rise.

"The way that Democrats talk about affordability is a lie. Today is a perfect example of that," Duffy claimed. "So, these (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, used what was contrary to the law. They spent a lot of money on technology and trying to meet the unattainable standard, driving up the cost of a car.

"And then number two, if they couldn't meet the unattainable standard, they had to trade, for carbon costing billions of dollars.

"The more cars we sell, the more jobs we have in this company."

Trump said the average price reduction is expected to drop $1,000 but added it will possibly be more than that.

"We're protecting our autoworkers and we're making it easier for every family to afford high-quality cars," Trump said. "We lost 52 percent of our automobile manufacturers. A big beneficiary is the state of Michigan, but South Carolina and even states that didn't do much with automobiles are opening plants."

Trump also canceled the EPA's tailpipe standards despite burning gasoline for vehicles being a major contributor to planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

He also revoked Biden's emissions waiver for the state of California he claimed was meddling with the automakers by imposing its own rules.

The move comes in light of lagging sales for EVS across the board with many tax incentives due to end soon. In light of the electric downturn, Ford Motor Company is considering canceling the Electric F-150 The Lightning, the Wall Street Journal reported last month.

What they're saying:

Jim Farley, the president and CEO of Ford Motor Company called the announcement a victory for common sense and affordability.

"This cafe standard that is aligned with customer demand is the right move, for a lot of reasons," he said. "We were number two last year in EV sales. We were number three in hybrid. And we're the leading brand for combustion. We believe that people should be able to make a choice. As you said, Mr. President, and we will invest more in affordable vehicles."

Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa also spoke about how the reduction in CAFE standards is a win for what the public demand.

"It's a great day for us at Stellantis," he said. "We decided to invest to Jeep, Ram, Dodge and Chrysler. $13 billion in the next 40 years, increasing production by 50%, delivering to the market five new vehicles and creating 5000 additional jobs. That's because we believe in what you see here. There's staff and all your team is doing in this country."

John Urbanic, the General Manager of General Motors' Lake Orion plant, also chimed in.  

"The manufacturing facility there is currently going through a retool so that we can build additional U.S. manufactured pickup trucks and full size power utilities for our customers," he said. "And we're so excited about that."