Three members of President Donald Trump’s transition team urged the White House Thursday to stay the course on a ruling rolling back fuel efficiency standards crafted during Obama’s administration.
Analysts Shirley Ybarra, Myron Ebell, and Thomas Pyle are encouraging Trump to stay the course on reforms to the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). Activists and the auto industry have criticized Trump for his move to ding former President Barack Obama’s efficiency standards.
“The CAFE mandate is a vestige of a bygone era of perceived scarcity,” Ebell, who represented Trump’s EPA transition team, said in a press statement. Modern energy production has rendered moot any need to dramatically ratchet up the industry’s fuel mileage requirements, he noted.
“My fellow signatories and I thank the president for taking on the mandate and encourage him to face down California’s Democratic political machine,” Ebell explained. “As we have said before, decisions about what kinds of cars people drive should be made [by] consumers, not by bureaucrats making backroom deals.”
Ybarra and Pyle headed the president’s Department of Transportation and Energy Department teams, respectively. All three analysts wrote a letter asking Trump to not waver on his initial decision.
The plan would also target California’s ability to set its own vehicle efficiency standards. California’s high standards have forced automakers to build more fuel-efficient vehicles, which ultimately effects national efficiency standards. (RELATED: REPORT: Trump Prepares To Scrap Obama-Era Fuel Efficiency Rules)
Obama aimed to raise the average fuel economy of automobiles to more than 50 miles per gallon within 10 years. California got permissions from the Obama administration to issue its own, higher emissions standards.
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