Walberg, Cruz, Crapo lead 120 Lawmakers Demanding NHTSA Withdraw CAFE Standards

Washington, D.C. -- Congressman Tim Walberg (R-MI-5), Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID) led 77 House and 43 Senate members in sending a letter to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) urging the administration to withdraw its proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and light trucks. The proposed standards do not comply with federal law and would require automakers to more than double their average fleet-wide fuel economy to 58 miles per gallon by 2032 or face significant penalties for non-compliance. 

In the letter, Walberg and his colleagues write: "federal statute expressly prohibits NHTSA from considering the fuel economy of EVs when determining maximum feasible CAFE standards for passenger cars and trucks. Despite this clear statutory limitation, which NHTSA acknowledged in its proposal, NHTSA accounted for EVs in its regulatory baseline and factored that baseline into its determination of the maximum achievable CAFE standards. In doing so, NHTSA created standards that simply cannot be met by vehicles that use liquid fuels alone, but only through the mass production of EVs.”

The letter continues: "Rather than following EPA with a market-distorting EV mandate, NHTSA should put forth market-driven standards that promote competition among a variety of technologies to ensure the availability of vehicles that contain a mix of all the attributes consumers typically desire, including efficiency. NHTSA’s inappropriate, EV-focused approach will limit availability of and access to vehicle and fuel options that would better meet consumer preferences and needs and accomplish statutory objectives, while still reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) in the transportation sector.”

You may read the full letter here.