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AVON, Ohio — Several Trump Adnminstration Officials, including U.S Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin touted their regulatroy rollbacks in a Ford factory in Avon, Ohio. 
“Now I’m not advocating for the 1970 station wagon. But you could make a station wagon again under this standard,” Duffy said. 
Duffy explained the administration is in the process of changing CAFE standards. During the Biden Administration, the goal was to have that standard for auto makers to be roughly 50 MPG by 2031. Duffy says they plan to change that standard to 35 MPG. 
“It’s actually an average for all of the manufacturers of automobiles,” explained Victor Flatt, the Coleman P. Burke Chair of Environmental Law at Case Western Reserve University, “For instance, if Ford makes a truck that gets 20 miles to the gallon, but it sells another car that gets 45 miles to the gallon, then those offset each other. The key is that the entire fleet of vehicles that are sold by any manufacturer has to reach that average fuel efficiency.”
At the Ford factory, Trump Officials said that changes the Biden Administration made in CAFE Standards amounted to an EV mandate. 
“The American public wants consumer choice, and they were very upset with the direction of politicians in government that want to choose for them,” said U.S EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said. 
Flatt says automakers would have had to produce some electric vehicles in order to reach the former CAFE standards set under Biden. 
“It wouldn’t have to be all electric vehicles, but it would include a substantial number," he said. "The estimates were 30 to 40% of new vehicles sold by 2030 would need to be electric vehicles.”
Duffy said, by reducing CAFE standards and getting rid of penalties for CAFE violations, car makers will be able to lower the cost of a new vehicle by around $1,000. Duffy said that is a change hopes consumers will be able to see by the end of 2026.   
Flatt said, currently, gas powered cars are slightly cheaper to make than electric ones. 
"That’s only looking at the manufacturing costs now," he said. "What it doesn’t take into account are the cost of fuel and maintenance, fuel and maintenance cost favor electric vehicles.”
Republican Ohio Sen. Bernie Moreno said these policy changes will help U.S. automakers succeed. 
“This about making certain that we are protecting American jobs," he said.
Flatt said the move might bring down the sticker price, but it might also leave the U.S behind when it comes to developing EV’s and EV infrastructure. 
“The rest of the world is electrifying very fast, because it is just cheaper," he said. "Ultimately I think that is going to happen in the United States. I think that this is just slowing down that transition”

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