The Trump administration on Monday rolled back the Biden-era fuel efficiency standards that required automakers to make their cars and light trucks use less fuel, a move the administration says will make new cars $1,300 cheaper on average.
Under the Biden-era rules, the nation’s car fleet was expected to average 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. The Trump administration’s change lowers that figure to 34.9 miles per gallon.
The administration argues the rollback will bring down the cost of cars. Opponents of the move counter that drivers could end up spending more on gasoline, and they say the change could lead to more pollution and worsen climate change.
The Biden administration’s rule would have raised fuel economy requirements by 2% per year for model years 2027 through 2031. At the time, the previous administration said the change would save drivers more than $600 in fuel costs over the lifetime of a vehicle.
President Donald Trump celebrated the decision in a Truth Social post over the weekend.
“BIG DAY FOR AMERICAN AUTO WORKERS AND CAR BUYERS! I have just approved new Fuel Economy Standards that TERMINATE Sleepy Joe Biden and Pete Boot-EDGE-EDGE’s ridiculous EV Mandate,” he wrote.
“The Dumocrats cost our Great Auto Manufacturers $Billions, forced Americans into cars they never wanted, and wasted Billions on Chargers that were never built,” the president added.
The standards had already been stripped of their teeth by the president’s Big Beautiful Bill. A provision in that law reduced the penalties for failing to meet the standards to $0.
Now, with the stricter Biden-era rule off the books entirely, automakers will no longer be legally required to follow it, even though the Big Beautiful Bill had already prevented them from being penalized for falling short.
The Trump administration has described the Biden rule as part of an electric vehicle (EV) mandate, arguing the regulations were so strict that car makers would have been forced to boost their share of EVs to comply. On the campaign trail, the president frequently blasted the Biden administration’s pro-EV policies.
The Biden administration maintained that it did not factor electric vehicles into its rulemaking and that the rule did not require EV adoption, though it acknowledged automakers could increase their share of EVs to meet the requirements.
A separate Biden-era rule issued through the Environmental Protection Agency had been expected to drive a significant shift toward EVs over the next several years. The Trump administration has already repealed that regulation.
Environmental advocates slammed Monday’s rollback, pointing to high fuel prices. Gasoline averaged about $4.48 per gallon on Monday, according to AAA.
“Trump is tanking sensible mileage standards at the worst possible time for consumers, who’re getting hit with sky-high prices at the pump,” Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign, said in a written statement.
Becker argued consumers will bear the cost of the rollbacks while, in his view, Big Oil and Big Auto collect short-term profits. He also warned the move would bring short- and long-term harm to people’s health and the planet, and even to U.S. automakers, who he said would be left on the sidelines as clean cars advance around the world.
[READ MORE: Trump Moves to Cancel $810 Million in Refugee, Education Funding]
