In his first action as Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary, Sean Duffy signed an order to “immediately initiate a rulemaking to rescind or replace all existing CAFE standards.” The press release then goes on to cherry-pick data to support untrue claims that the standards are raising prices for drivers.
The truth is today’s fuel economy standards save you money. Counting new vehicles’ initial cost, car owners save $630 to $840 over the life of a vehicle.
Weakening these standards will cost drivers more money. They will make your new vehicle guzzle more gas. You’ll pay more at the pump than whatever you might save on the car lot.
Big oil gets richer. Americans get poorer.
Here are the facts.
What are CAFE Standards?
No, CAFE standards have nothing to do with your morning coffee. CAFE stands for the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Fuel economy standards have been saving you money for 50 years. Way back in 1975, Congress enacted legislation to reduce energy and oil usage by setting higher “miles-per-gallon” standards for cars and trucks under the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
Since 1975, these standards have saved more than two trillion gallons of gasoline, enough to run every car and light truck in the U.S. for more than 15 years.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHTSA) is supposed to strengthen the standards as gas-saving technology improves. According to DOT “When these standards are raised, automakers respond by creating a more fuel-efficient fleet, which improves our nation’s energy security and saves consumers money at the pump.”
Back in the 1970s, vehicles on average got 13 miles per gallon. With the standards passed last year by the Biden Administration, they would bring fuel economy to over 50 miles per gallon in model year 2031. For a 10-gallon car, that means in 1970, you would have only been able to drive 130 miles before needing to refill vs. in 2031, you’ll be able to drive 500 miles. That equates to not only saving money at the pump but also saving time and reducing the number of trips to gas stations.
Benefits of CAFE
When a car is more fuel efficient, it means that you are saving money on gasoline, since you won’t need to fill up your car as much.
The CAFE rules finalized in 2024 are estimated to save drivers $23 billion in fuel costs and avoid the consumption of about 70 billion gallons of gasoline through 2050.
What Trump is Proposing
President Trump’s January 20 Executive Orders declared a non-existent “energy emergency” and ordered agencies, including NHTSA, to weaken or eliminate any regulations that “impose an undue burden on the identification, development, or use” of oil and other fossil fuels. Secretary Duffy’s memorandum doesn’t change the existing standards – that can happen only after NHTSA issues a proposal, takes and responds to public comments, and issues final rules change – but it sets that process in motion.
Duffy’s memo does not say by how much the agency will weaken the CAFE standards. Project 2025 – the administration’s playbook that Trump deceptively pretended not to know during the campaign – advocates rolling them back to 35 miles per gallon, the level set in 2007.
That will cost you and your family more money.
Fact vs. Fiction
CAFE standards and electric vehicles are not the reason vehicle costs have been increasing. In the Duffy memo, he makes many outlandish claims that do not stand the sniff test.
Fiction: There is an EV Mandate that Trump must end.
Fact: This rhetoric is aligned with Trump’s Executive Order that calls for ending the “EV Mandate,” which, like the energy emergency, simply does not exist. It’s true that automakers are building more electric vehicles in response to growing consumer demand and world-wide market trends. But the CAFE standards do not require EVs – in fact, the law prevents NHTSA from considering EVs when setting standards. Ultimately, the law requires NHTSA to set standards at the maximum feasible standard, which is what the rules do.
Fiction: CAFE standards are forcing Americans into cars they don’t want.
Fact: Automakers have a variety of ways to comply with the CAFE standards; any type or kind of vehicle can become more fuel efficient. This means that automakers will likely develop many different types of vehicles of all fuel types, helping to increase customer choice. Data from the Alternative Fuels Data Center shows this in action: manufacturers have increasingly developed new models of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEV).
