The Trump Administration should halt its antitrust investigation into four automakers and the state of California over fuel economy standards and sit down with all of the parties and come up with reasonable mileage goals.
A compromise is needed, not a legal battle and angry finger-pointing.
The Justice Department action came because President Trump was irritated by a side deal worked out between California regulators and Ford Motor Co., Volkswagen AG, BMW, and Honda Motor Co. to revise a planned increase in the fuel standard. Mr. Trump maintains that California doesn’t have the authority to set its own standard, and he insists on dumping the planned increases in fuel economy, keeping intact the level set for next year. He took steps on Wednesday to revoke California’s authority; a court fight is expected.
The current corporate average fuel economy, or CAFE, standards require cars to get 36 miles per gallon of gasoline by 2025, up from about 30 mpg next year. (Car sticker mileage, calculated differently, would be 54.5 mpg by 2025). The California side deal would, among other changes, provide credits for electric vehicles and set the standard of 36 mpg by 2026.
Some major automakers have balked at the current standards set years ago. Still, several automakers and 23 governors this summer urged Mr. Trump and California regulators to reach a compromise, noting that an increase from the current levels would be acceptable.
Mr. Trump contends that California should not have the ability to set its own standards — even though Congress passed an amendment years ago permitting it. That dispute is the basis of the Justice Department notification this month to the four automakers that they were the subject of an antitrust inquiry and to California regulators that they may have violated federal law.
What’s at stake is critical to the auto industry and to the general public.
Automakers need to know the fuel-economy rules to design and build their vehicles, and a changing regulatory landscape makes that task difficult. The public should be told what the revised standards will mean for the environment as fuel economy and the amount of driving are closely tied to gas emissions and air pollution.
Setting reasonable standards, with higher fuel economy than next year’s level, should not be that hard. The Trump Administration should abandon its tunnel vision on the issue and talk with automakers and California regulators to find middle ground. There’s still time to do so.
First Published September 19, 2019, 4:00 a.m.
