Perspective | New Cars, Cleaner Air
The Lane Report cited CEI on CAFE standards.
The Department of Transportation finds that the best way to achieve cleaner air is when families can afford to buy new cars, getting older and higher polluting ones off the road. According to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the new standards are expected to save about 1,000 lives yearly. In the effort to save on oil, existing CAFE standards have tolerated standards that encourage car manufacturers to build ever lighter cars to meet the mandatory fuel standards. But lighter cars built with plastics rather than steel provide less safety for the occupants of the automobiles, trading better fuel efficiency and less safety for occupants. Even with the proposed Trump changes, the mileage requirements would still rise to 42 mpg by 2025.