Attorney General Bonta Files Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Rollback of Fuel Economy Standards
OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta today led a coalition of 26 states, counties, and cities in filing a lawsuit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) challenging its final rule weakening corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for new passenger cars and light trucks. Historically, NHTSA’s standards have reduced consumer costs by improving fuel efficiency for vehicles, placed downward pressure on gas prices by reducing fuel consumption, protected the U.S. economy from global oil shocks, and reduced pollution from tailpipes and refineries. However, the final rule significantly weakens fuel economy standards and hurts consumers and the planet. In the lawsuit filed today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition allege that NHTSA’s new rule is contrary to law and that NHTSA contravenes its mandate from Congress to set fuel-economy standards at their “maximum feasible” level. Far from “maximum feasible,” NHTSA’s backsliding standards for the next five years require less efficiency than what the U.S. fleet actually achieved in 2021.
“The President started a war that has created volatility in oil markets, disrupted global energy supplies, and left families and businesses paying the price at the pump. Yet, the Trump Administration is attempting to gut fuel economy standards and force Americans to spend billions more on gas while poisoning the air in our communities,” said Attorney General Bonta. “Let’s be clear: The Trump Administration is doing this to line the pockets of their Big Oil donors. California will not stand idly by, we will defend fuel economy standards that keep costs down, protect public health, and build a better, sustainable future.”
In 1975, Congress enacted the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which requires NHTSA to establish “maximum feasible” fuel economy standards for new vehicles that reflect technological feasibility, economic practicability, the effect of other motor vehicle standards of the government, and the need to conserve energy. To set fuel economy standards, NHTSA first models the current fleet’s performance and then considers what, if any, additional actions manufacturers could take to improve their fuel economy in future model years above that. In past rulemakings, including during the first Trump Administration, NHTSA started from a realistic baseline fleet that included the millions of electric vehicles that already existed on our nation’s highways and roads and based fuel-economy standards on how additional technological improvements to gas-fueled cars could make that fleet more efficient. NHTSA never based fuel-economy standards on “mandating” automakers to produce more electric vehicles or requiring consumers to buy them.
The final rule misinterprets NHTSA’s statutory authority and improperly forces the agency to ignore the presence of millions of electric vehicles in the nation’s existing fleet, leading to a flawed, dramatically distorted analysis of the “maximum feasible” fuel economy level that the auto industry can achieve. Essentially, NHTSA’s novel reinterpretation of the law renders the federal fuel-economy program toothless, unable to protect consumers against rising gas prices or the ongoing global oil shock from President Trump’s war.
NHTSA has also utilized defective analyses of vehicle affordability and sales, fleet turnover, fuel savings, and vehicle safety to make a profoundly harmful and destructive rule look net-beneficial to society. For example, NHTSA tries to paper over nearly $220 billion in lost fuel savings — money that drivers would have saved at the pump under the previous fuel economy standards, which will instead benefit Big Oil. It also refuses to consider hundreds of billions of dollars in future damages from climate change-driven disasters, flouting the best science and research and effectively setting these costs at zero. Defying a longstanding and repeatedly affirmed Congressional mandate, NHTSA asserts that the United States does not need to conserve energy after all — treating the high gasoline prices and the instability of global oil markets as an acceptable trade for fossil fuel companies’ profits. Finally, NHTSA’s rule will end the CAFE credit trading program in 2028, which will significantly harm electric vehicle industries that employ Californians and support our economy.
In the lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta and the coalition allege that NHTSA’s final rule is arbitrary and capricious and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
Attorney General Bonta is committed to advocating for and defending drivers, consumers, and the environment. This year, he secured a key victory after the Trump Administration conceded its attempt to impose conditions on Department of Transportation grant funding for California’s vital travel infrastructure was unlawful. He also co-led a coalition in filing lawsuits against the Trump Administration for unlawfully suspending two bipartisan grant programs for electric vehicle charging infrastructure. Previously, he filed an amicus brief defending NHTSA’s stringent fuel economy standards under the Biden Administration.
In filing this lawsuit, Attorney General Bonta leads the attorneys general of Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, Wisconsin, and the District of Columbia, as well as the City of Chicago, the City and County of Denver, the City of New York, and the City and County of San Francisco.
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