Transportation and Infrastructure

The Biden administration’s new fuel-economy standards are too aggressive and add conflicting mandates to on-the-books regulations, the NAM said Friday.

What’s going on: The Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a proposal calling for a revision of current Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards for cars and light-duty trucks—to a fleet average of 58 miles per gallon by 2032.

• The draft rules are a complement to regulations released “in April that are the strictest on record and push automakers to make the majority of their sales electric vehicles,” reports Auto Dealer Today.

Why it’s problematic: “Auto manufacturers have been making historic investments to ensure that electric vehicles will have a growing place on America’s roads,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “However, the NAM has concerns over the three different sets of standards governing light- and medium-duty vehicles. For instance, the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed regulation on light- and medium-duty vehicles would require 67% of new manufactured vehicles to be battery electric by 2032 and is too aggressive.”

• Some of the rules that have been put forth recently by federal and state agencies conflict with one another, and some—particularly those released by the EPA—would increase the cost of both manufacturing and purchasing vehicles.
• “In addition, the federal government should not dictate the vehicle choices offered to consumers,” Timmons pointed out. “The administration should allow the market and consumers to grow the number of electric vehicles, rather than depending on a single technology to meet this goal.”

What can be done: “[T]hese regulations should be harmonized to create a single unified standard for vehicle emissions, so manufacturers do not have to navigate three often-conflicting targets, which raise costs for manufacturers and consumers,” Timmons continued.

What we’re doing: In June, the NAM and members of the NAM’s Council of Manufacturing Associations and Conference of State Manufacturing Associations launched Manufacturers for Sensible Regulations, a coalition aimed at addressing the negative effects of the multiple, often contradictory regulations being handed down by federal agencies.