EPA Won’t Extend Review Time on CAFE Rules

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it won’t extend the deadline for public comment about its schedule for tougher corporate average fuel economy standards through 2025.

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers had requested the extension. The agency also rejected the trade group’s request that CAFE limits be frozen after 2021. Under the current schedule, CAFE goals will rise 25% from 2014 to 2021, then nearly double by 2025.

AAM published a report in June that argues the 2021-2025 timetable will be virtually impossible to achieve, in part because of the market’s strong shift from cars to less fuel-efficient trucks. EPA contends that auto industry is capable of meeting the original schedule without resorting to costly technologies or a massive switch to hybrid and all-electric vehicles.

EPA isn’t required to complete its review until April 2018. But in late November it declared plans to maintain the original CAFE targets. A delay would enable Scott Pruitt, president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head EPA, to rescind the agency’s timetable. Pruitt and Trump have been strong critics of what they describe as excessive environmental regulations.