The Trump administration released a proposal on Thursday to significantly weaken EPA vehicle emission standards implemented under President Obama.
The plan, which is expected to be finalized by the end of the year, rolls back a 2012 rule that required automakers to produce more electric vehicles and reach a 54 mile-per-gallon fuel efficiency standard by 2025.
Arguing the rule placed an undue burden on automakers, the Trump administration has opted to freeze fuel efficiency standards at 37 miles per gallon, the level the Obama administration required automakers to hit by 2021.
The proposal also eliminates a waiver that previously allowed California, which comprises one third of the American auto market, to set its own, more ambitious fuel efficiency and electric vehicle standards.
The Trump administration has argued that the Obama administration’s effort to encourage the production of lighter, more fuel efficient vehicles increased annual traffic fatalities by roughly 13,000.
“It is now recognized that, as the stringency of standards increases, so does the likelihood that higher stringency will increase on-road fatalities,” administration officials wrote in the proposal draft. “As it turns out, there is no such thing as a free lunch.”
A number of states that adhere to California’s more stringent standards have already vowed to sue the Trump administration over the rule change, prompting many automakers to encourage the administration to compromise by rolling back the Obama-era regulations to a lesser degree in order to avoid a protracted legal battle that will leave the regulatory environment divided.
“The Trump administration has launched a brazen and unlawful attack on our nation’s clean car standards,” California attorney general Xavier Becerra said in a Thursday statement. We will use every legal tool at its disposal to fight back. “