ECONOMY/EPA/OBAMA/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “President Trump is expected to announce a new review of federal auto fuel economy and emissions rules Wednesday [3-15-17] at an event in Michigan.
A senior White House official said the administration plans to review standards approved by the Environmental Protection Agency just ahead of Trump’s inauguration, saying the regulations may not be “economically feasible.”
The review, which automakers have been seeking from the Trump administration for many weeks, opens the door to lower fuel economy requirements and less stringent controls on carbon dioxide emissions…
The plan, as originally announced by the Obama administration in 2012, would have required automakers to achieve Corporate Average Fuel Economy of 54.5 miles per gallon by the year 2025. (In reality, cars would average about 42 mpg. So-called CAFE mileage is calculated differently from expected real-world fuel economy.)…
The Obama plan included a scheduled ‘midterm review’ to assuage industry fears of being locked into potentially unobtainable long-term fuel economy and emissions targets. The government was supposed to check in with the industry, look at all the data, and see whether the 2025 goals were still viable. The deadline for that was April 2018.”
-Peter Valdes-Dapena and Rene Marsh, “Trump to announce do-over on fuel economy rules for automakers,” CNN Money, CNN.com, March 15, 2017