The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has proposed to reestablish the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for vehicles. The Trump Administration had previously replaced CAFE with the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule. The NHTSA is proposing to repeal this Trump rule, bringing CAFE back into effect.
CAFE essentially gave California the power to set the standard for the nation’s fuel efficiency rules, as the Obama Administration granted California an unlawful exemption from federal preemption. CAFE standards mandate lighter, smaller cars to attempt to enhance fuel economy, but do so at incredible cost to consumers and at the expense of highway safety.
CFACT signed a coalition letter opposing the repeal of SAFE and reestablishment of CAFE to the NHTSA.
Here is a short excerpt of the letter:
The SAFE 1 Rule restores the pre-2009 institutional framework for determining Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. By eliminating California’s tailpipe CO2 emission standards and zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandates, SAFE 1 ends Sacramento’s power to bully automakers into serving its ideological agenda rather than the revealed preferences of consumers.4 That should relieve the political pressure on NHTSA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and manufacturers to ignore the adverse effects of CAFE standards on vehicle affordability, consumer choice, and occupant safety.
You can read that letter in full, here.