Attorney General James Challenges Federal Rollback of Fuel Economy Standards
NEW YORK – New York Attorney General Letitia James today joined a coalition of 25 other states, counties, and cities in suing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for rolling back critical money-saving fuel economy standards for vehicles. Earlier this week, the Trump administration sharply reduced efficiency standards for new vehicles, allowing new cars, vans, and pickup trucks to be even less fuel-efficient than they were at the end of the first Trump administration. Attorney General James and the coalition argue that by scaling back these standards, the administration is hurting consumers by depriving them of much-needed relief from rising gas prices and violating the law by refusing to set limits at the “maximum feasible” level. The coalition is asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to strike down the unlawful repeal.
“Piece by piece, this administration is attempting to dismantle the critical protections standing between the American people and climate disaster,” said Attorney General James. “Across the country, gas prices are skyrocketing and extreme weather is intensifying. There is no reason for the federal government to be giving handouts to big oil at the expense of American families, and we will keep fighting back to stop it.”
In 1975, during an energy crisis that caused gas prices to spike, Congress passed a law requiring NHTSA to set fuel economy standards for new vehicles at the “maximum feasible” level automakers can achieve in a given year. These corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards have historically reduced costs for American consumers by improving vehicles’ fuel efficiency and lowered gas prices by reducing fuel consumption. The standards have also helped protect the U.S. economy from global oil shocks and reduced pollution from tailpipes and refineries.
On Monday, the federal government announced a final rule to reverse progress made in recent years and drastically lower standards for carmakers. Under the new rule, vehicle manufacturers must produce cars with an average fuel efficiency of 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 – a dramatic decrease from the over 50 miles per gallon goal previously set, and right around the level at which automakers are already functioning.
This new policy, which Attorney General James and the coalition called a “radical reinterpretation” of the law in their comment letter on the then-proposed rule, fundamentally misinterprets NHTSA’s statutory authority and illegally directs the agency to ignore the millions of electric vehicles already on the road when calculating fuel standards. Attorney General James and the coalition argue that ignoring a substantial portion of the nation’s vehicle fleet can only lead to a flawed, dramatically distorted analysis of the “maximum feasible” fuel economy levels, rendering the federal fuel-economy program effectively toothless and unable to protect consumers against rising gas prices or the ongoing global oil shock from the president’s war.
The coalition asserts that the administration is attempting to misrepresent its rule to the public, relying on flawed analyses of vehicle sales, fleet turnover, fuel savings, and vehicle safety to make a profoundly harmful and destructive policy look beneficial to society. The administration refuses to address the nearly $220 billion that Americans would have saved at the gas pump under the previous fuel economy standards – money that will instead benefit big oil companies. It also fails to consider the hundreds of billions of dollars in future damages from climate-driven disasters, arbitrarily projecting these costs at near-zero in its calculations.
In establishing these new standards, NHTSA even goes so far as to claim that the United States does not need to conserve energy at all. In fact, this is not the agency’s decision to make. Congress has already concluded that the nation needs to conserve energy and has directed NHTSA to act accordingly. Under the law, the agency has no legal authority to determine whether the nation should conserve energy; it must only calculate how much to conserve. In using this baseless assertion to justify its rule change, NHTSA is vastly overstepping its statutory authority. This claim also completely contradicts the president’s declaration of a nationwide energy crisis.
In today’s lawsuit, filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the coalition alleges that NHTSA’s final rule is arbitrary and capricious and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
Joining Attorney General James in filing this lawsuit are the attorneys general of Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the Cities of New York and Chicago, and the Cities and Counties of Denver and San Francisco.
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