Chairman LaMalfa Supports Proposed Changes to Fuel Economy Standards

Washington, December 4, 2025 | John Veale ((202) 480-7191)
Tags: Energy
Congressional Western Caucus Chairman Doug LaMalfa (CA-01) released the following statement after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration published its "Freedom Means Affordable Cars" proposal, a significant reset to the agency's corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.

“For years our national fuel economy standards have done nothing more than fail consumers and fine manufacturers.” said Chairman LaMalfa. “It created a maze of penalties and compliance hoops that distorted the market and pushed the cost of a new car to the highest levels ever recorded. Ditching these technically-impossible standards, especially reducing the fuel economy targets from 50.4 miles per gallon to an achievable 34.5 miles per gallon, is a major win for every car owner. I would like to thank the Trump Administration for once again standing up for consumer choice and giving Americans the freedom to choose what works best for their lifestyle.”

Background: 
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration manages the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards program created by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975, and amended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, and other laws. NHTSA is required to set CAFE standards to a maximum feasible level which the agency determines vehicle manufacturers can achieve in each model year, balancing four key factors: technological feasibility, economic practicability, the need of the Nation to conserve energy, and the effect of other Federal regulations on fuel economy.

Under the Biden Administration, the agency assumed large fuel savings from certain technologies, and assigned astronomical values to electric vehicles to drive up the fleet average miles-per-gallon that car manufacturers had to achieve to avoid fines. These costs were passed on to American consumers, leading to significant inflation in the price of new cars. To reset the CAFE standards to their original purpose, the Trump Administration's changes include several key provisions:
  • Resets standards to a new Model Year (MY) 2022 baseline, increasing by an achievable 0.5% through MY 2026, then 0.25% through MY 2031; NHTSA projects the light-duty fleet (passenger and non-passenger) average will be about 34.5 miles-per-gallon in MY 2031.
  • Removes electric vehicles from baseline fleet fuel economy measurements.
  • Eliminates the inter-manufacturer credit trading system which subsidized electric vehicle manufacturers by allowing them to sell "credits" that offset the fines that other car manufacturers would owe for being unable to achieve technically-impossible standards.
    • Importantly, manufacturers will still be able to transfer credits between different categories of their own vehicles, or carry the credits forward and backward across model years.
  • Halts the use of "off-cycle" and AC efficiency fuel consumption improvement values (FCIVs) in NHTSA's analysis of individual vehicles, which had been abused by the EPA to encourage use of technology in cars that consumers didn't want and which generated questionable fuel savings in real-world scenarios.
You can see the announcement from the Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, along with more information on the changes, here.

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