CEI Applauds Easing of CAFE Standards But Further Reductions Would Be a Lot Better for Consumers
The Department of Transportation and Environmental Protection Agency today released the final Safer Affordable Fuel Efficiency (SAFE) rule, partially rolling back stringent and costly fuel efficiency requirements put in place by the Obama Administration.
CEI General Counsel Sam Kazman said:
“CEI applauds the Trump Administration announcement that it is rolling back the Obama Administration’s scheduled increases in CAFE standards. The rollback is a welcome step in slowing down CAFE’s progressively worse restrictions on consumer choice in car buying. Even more welcome is the agencies putting numbers on the lethal toll that CAFE imposes on vehicle safety. But in our view, the agencies should have gone even further; rather than just slowing down the CAFE increases, they should have either frozen or even rolled back the standards. That would have been even better for consumers and for the country.”
Senior Fellow Marlo Lewis said:
“The basic idea behind the SAFE Vehicles Rule—the U.S. auto industry needed relief from costly mandates pricing millions U.S. households out of the market for new, safer, more fuel-efficient vehicles—was always sound. Now more than ever, with much of the economy shut down and oil prices crashing, automakers should be free to produce vehicles people want at prices they can afford. The only real question policymakers should be asking themselves about the SAFE Rule is whether its deregulatory measures go far enough.”
Read more:
- Kazman in WSJ: Coffee Won’t Kill You, But CAFE Might
- Lewis and Kazman: CEI Calls on EPA to Reconsider More-Stringent Fuel Economy Standards
