"Most other automakers contend the Obama-era standards were enacted hastily and will be impossible to meet because consumers have shifted dramatically away from efficient cars to SUVs and trucks." That shift was due in part to the laxer standards (fuel economy, emissions and safety) for SUV's and trucks? Which appealed to the buy-now-pay-later mentality of most consumers.
That's slight of hand. The Obama era target figure touted in the press was based on past sales ratio of cars to trucks. The actual targets are separate for cars and trucks, which is why some cars get classified as a truck by a manufacturer, to help pull up the truck average, or to avoid pulling the car one too low. Even if there is a hard single target, changing it to match the current sales ratio isn't out of the question; there was talk of such a few years ago, just before the election IIRC.
Tomorrow has already happened? "The Trump administration is expected to release a final rule Tuesday on mileage standards through 2026." Yes, we know something like this was likely to happen. But we didn't know the full and final details, and could still be missing some additional details not yet released.
But the "standards" have already been relaxed once, at least. This is likely to be just more of the same. Or making the "interim" standards "permanent". It will NOT necessarily be anything new.
Key word..... "effort" It it's important enough to DO, then it's important enough to make a LAW.....instead of trying to govern by regulations and standards...
Is there a possibility at least some manufacturers will ignore the lowered standards? That would be sweet...
The issue would be in getting buyers to support them with cheap fuel. A valid complaint from the manufacturers about CAFE is that the burden to meet is all on them; there is no incentive for the majority of car buyers to get the more fuel efficient models except through the manufacturers offering deep discounts on them.
