Politics
Trump Officially Lowers The Bar For How Far A Gallon Has To Take You
By Mor Michael, . BSN Network. Satire.
The Trump administration announced this week that it was rolling back fuel efficiency standards set during the Biden years, formally ending the federal government's working relationship with the concept of using less gas.
The Biden-era rules had required automakers to steadily improve the fuel economy of their cars and light trucks, on the premise that a gallon of gasoline is a finite thing and cars are large. The Trump administration reviewed this premise and declined to continue with it.
Energy Secretary Doug Burgum described the rollback as a win for American consumers, American automakers, and American freedom, in that order, without specifying which Americans currently pay for their own gasoline.
"The previous administration was telling hardworking families what kind of car they could drive," Burgum said at a briefing Tuesday, standing in front of a chart that appeared to show fuel prices falling, though the vertical axis was not labeled. "We are restoring choice."
The choice being restored is the choice to buy a vehicle that uses more fuel to travel the same distance, at a moment when fuel prices have been the administration's primary complaint about the previous administration.
Automakers including Ford and General Motors, who had spent the better part of a decade and several billion dollars redesigning powertrains to meet the Biden targets, were notified of the rollback by press release. Several issued statements calling it "a constructive step toward regulatory clarity," which is the corporate equivalent of saying thank you through clenched teeth after someone kicks over your science project.
Ford declined to say how much of its efficiency investment it planned to write off. GM said it was "evaluating the implications." Neither company said what they were going to do with the engineers.
Environmental groups called the move a catastrophe. The administration called those groups alarmist. Both of these things have been true at various points and neither side appeared to find that interesting.
The rollback is expected to result in more fuel being burned per mile driven, across a fleet of hundreds of millions of vehicles, over the coming decades. The administration noted that this was, technically, a matter of individual choice.
A spokesperson for the EPA confirmed that the new standard was, in effect, no standard, and that automakers would be evaluated on a rolling basis against benchmarks that had not yet been set, using a methodology that was still under development, in a timeline described only as "reasonable."
The gallon, reached for comment, said nothing, and continues to be finite.
The story we are making fun of: https://thehill.com/newsletters/energy-environment/6116281-trump-loosens-vehicle-mileage-standards/