EPA, Trump administration looking to relax fuel efficiency standards - Reuters

The Trump administration is going ahead with plans to make a series of changes to fuel efficiency requirements soon, as reported by Reuters.

Key quotes

“The U.S. Transportation Department has drafted a proposal likely to be made public this month that would freeze vehicle requirements at 2020 levels through 2026. It is set to formally go to the White House for review next week, officials said. The freeze is the preferred option, but is one of many options in the proposal set to be made public in the first week of June, two officials said.

California and 16 other states covering about 40 percent of the U.S. population sued earlier this month to block the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken the fuel efficiency requirements. On Tuesday, a group of environmental groups including the Environmental Defense Found, Center for Biological Diversity, the Sierra Club and Union for Concerned Scientists also filed suit.

The Transportation Department proposal asserts that a 1975 federal law preempts states from imposing emissions rules.

California, the most populous U.S. state, has long been allowed by an Environmental Protection Agency waiver to impose stricter standards than Washington does on vehicle emissions of some pollutants, but the state agreed to adopt the emissions rules of the Obama administration in 2011.”