U.S. Department Of Transportation Raises Car Fuel Efficiency Standards
On April 1, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it had finalized a regulation that will increase fuel efficiency standards for cars. The new rule requires automakers to produce fleets of cars and light trucks averaging 49 miles per gallon in model year 2026.
The previous administration had reduced the standards to 40 miles per gallon.
The department said the new standards will increase fuel efficiency eight percent annually for model years 2024 and 2025 and 10 percent annually for model year 2026. U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the new rules prevent 5.5 trillion pounds of carbon dioxide from going into the atmosphere by 2050.
According to The Hill, the transportation sector is the largest contributor to climate change in the United States, and light duty vehicles like cars are responsible for more than half of those emissions.