The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it will reconsider the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for passenger cars for model years 2022-25. The Obama administration set very stringent standards, peaking at 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025. After the EPA’s midterm review, it found these standards to be inappropriate. Automakers also warn that the standards are too strict and potentially price millions of consumers out of the market for new cars.
The EPA’s decision could save car buyers thousands of dollars in the showroom, make auto companies more attuned to what consumers want rather than what bureaucrats want, and increase autoworkers’ wages. At the same time, and contrary to what the EPA’s critics claim, relaxing the standards would have no discernible impact on either climate change or energy security.
. . .CAFE is also a woefully inefficient climate change policy. Obama’s EPA estimated that the 2022-25 fuel economy standards would avert less than two hundredths of a degree Celsius of warming by 2100 — too little to discernibly affect weather patterns, sea levels, polar bear populations or any other climate-related indicator people care about. The Reason study estimates that automakers and consumers spend about $1,000 for every ton of carbon dioxide reduced through the CAFE program. That’s more than 20 times greater than the Obama administration’s social cost of carbon estimate for 2025.
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