Trump’s New Transportation Secretary Takes a Sledgehammer to Biden’s ‘De Facto EV Mandate’ As His First Act in Office

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Tuesday began the process of rolling back fuel economy standards set by the Biden administration that he said “put coercive pressure” on automakers to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles.

A news release posted on the website of the Federal Highway Administration said that Duffy’s “first act” was issuing a directive that will reset the Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.

“I am deeply honored by the trust placed in me by President Trump to lead this important Department and for the Senate in swiftly confirming my nomination,” Duffy said, according to the release.

“We are already hard at work executing the president’s vision to usher in a golden age of transportation by taking immediate action to remove government overreach and lower costs for hardworking Americans.

“The memorandum signed today specifically reduces the burdensome and overly restrictive fuel standards that have needlessly driven up the cost of a car in order to push a radical Green New Deal agenda,” he continued.

“The American people should not be forced to sacrifice choice and affordability when purchasing a new car.”

In a post on X, journalist Thomas Catenacci said the standards rolled back by Duffy “were seen by critics as a de facto EV mandate.”

Breaking: In his first action, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy axed Biden’s CAFE fuel economy standards that were seen by critics as a de facto EV mandate.

Duffy said the rules had “needlessly driven up the cost of a car in order to push a radical Green New Deal agenda.” pic.twitter.com/5R1kr6FFi2

— Thomas Catenacci (@ThomasCatenacci) January 29, 2025

As noted by Reuters, the standards implemented under the Biden administration sought to boost Corporate Average Fuel Economy requirements to about 50.4 miles per gallon by 2031. The current standard for light-duty vehicles is 39.1 miles per gallon.

The memorandum Duffy issued said that the Biden era standards were out of line with Trump administration priorities.

“These fuel economy standards are set at such aggressive levels that automakers cannot, as a practical matter, satisfy the standards without rapidly shifting production away from internal-combustion­-engine (ICE) vehicles to alternative electric technologies,” the memo said.

“Artificially high fuel economy standards designed to meet non-statutory policy goals, such as those NHTSA has promulgated in recent years, impose large costs that render many new vehi­cle models unaffordable for the average American family and small business owner,” the memo said, using the acronym for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The standards “put coercive pressure on automakers to phase out of production various models of popular ICE vehicles and reengineer their fleets in a way that reduces dramatically the power and durability of the ICE models they are able to offer, thereby fundamentally distorting the market and destroying consumer choice at the dealership,” the memo said.

The memo decried “[f]uel economy standards that diminish the strength of America’s auto industry and deny American the full range of affordable ICE vehicles they need and are willing to pay for.”

The memo said the goal of the CAFÉ program “is not to force the electrification of the Nation’s auto fleets.”

Instead, the memo said, its purpose is “to establish the maximum average fuel economy standards that are realistic and feasible for fleets of vehicles of all sizes and uses that run on combustible liquid fuels like gasoline and diesel fuel and that the auto industry is capable of producing and selling in sufficient volume to meet the real-world market demand of American buyers.”

The FHA release said that from March 2021 to March 2024, the average cost of a car rose 15.5 percent.

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