Auto Alliance Asks New EPA Chief to Review CAFE Ruling

A trade group that represents a dozen major carmakers has asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revisit its decision to lock in rules that would raise corporate average fuel economy targets to more than 50 mpg by 2025.

EPA had until April 2018 to review the viability of the CAFE target. Last month, only days before the Obama administration ended, the agency ruled that the goal remains “feasible, practical and appropriate.”

But in a letter to new EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt on Tuesday, the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers claims the agency’s decision was “riddled with indefensible assumptions, inadequate analysis and a failure to engage with contrary evidence.”

Pruitt, who challenged several EPA rules when he was attorney general in Oklahoma, indicated during his Senate confirmation hearing last week that he would review many of the agency’s policies and standards, including its ruling on fuel economy.

Carmakers agreed with the original CAFE targets and the methodology EPA proposed to measure their performance when the rule was set in 2011. At the time, the Obama administration estimated the rules would cost carmakers $200 billion over 13 years and save consumers some $1.7 trillion in fuel costs.