Since taking office in January, U.S. President Donald Trump has made it quite clear that he plans to roll back a number of his predecessor Joe Biden’s policies as it pertains to a number of areas. One of those areas relates to emissions, and that process began in late January when Department of Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy signed a memorandum directing staff to start the process of resetting Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Now, Trump is seemingly aiming to turn back the clock on emissions standards by several years.
“We’re going to go back, probably, to a 2020 standard,” Trump recently told reporters, according to Bloomberg. “Existing pollution curbs, all over the world, don’t mean a damn bit of difference for the environment, but make it impossible for people to build cars.” Trump added that he had previously discussed this topic with Stellantis chairman John Elkann, specifically, “some of the problems they have with the environment, which we’re going to clean up.”
Back in 2020, vehicles from that model year forward were subjected to greenhouse gas pollution limits of 204 grams per mile for passenger models and 284 grams per mile for light trucks, though after taking office, Biden imposed carbon dioxide emissions limits of 170 grams per mile for 2027 model year vehicles and 85 grams per mile that are set to take effect in 2032. Trump called the 2020 limits “a strong standard,” noting that “we’re going to be bringing it back to a standard that is a very good environmental standard, but it makes it possible to build a car.”
This is the latest move amid several from Trump centered around vehicle emissions after the President signed an executive order in January reversing some of Biden’s EV-related policies. Just last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a new plan to continue that process, which may include the elimination of the federal clean energy tax credit – though the Ford-backed lobby group known as the Alliance for Automotive Innovation has asked Trump to reconsider some of those changes.
