Biden Stretches Industry Support for Fuel Standards
Joe Biden distorted the facts when he asserted that the auto industry thought the Obama administration’s fuel standards were “a good idea” and that automakers “didn’t even agree” with President Donald Trump’s proposal to roll them back.
Auto executives begrudgingly accepted the higher fuel standards adopted by the Obama administration back in 2011. They have repeatedly implored Trump to revisit and relax those standards, arguing that the current market makes the higher standards unfeasible and could cost more than a million jobs.
It’s true that automakers have not publicly embraced Trump’s plan to freeze the fuel standards, but the industry’s reticence is mostly tied to the administration’s failure to reach an agreement with California to provide uniform, nationwide fuel standards.
The former vice president, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, made his comments about auto industry support for ambitious Obama administration fuel economy standards — which would require autos achieve an average of 54.5 miles per gallon across all vehicles by 2025 — during a in Philadelphia on May 18.
