Policymakers Seeking to Reduce Atmospheric Pollution from Cars and Trucks Should Consider Correcting the Flaws in Fifty Years of Mileage Regulation
Washington, DC — Cars and trucks are the largest and fastest-growing source of U.S. carbon dioxide emissions — a very long-lasting greenhouse gas — according to a new report from the Consumer Policy Center released today. The study says that, since transportation accounts for 39% of total U.S. CO2 emissions from energy, the Big Beautiful Bill’s recent abandonment of vehicle efficiency standards is the equivalent of throwing in the towel on the U.S. role in slowing climate change, even without considering all the other anti-climate provisions in the recently passed legislation.
The Center issued its report – “Fifty Years of Vehicle Efficiency Standards and Climate Change” — as the nation approaches the 50th anniversary of President Gerald Ford signing the legislation creating the first fuel efficiency standards on December 22, 1975.
CPC Senior Fellow Jay Hakes, the author of the report, says: “The standards in place last year contained loopholes that created a sizeable gap between claimed and actual savings. Nonetheless, they proved to be more politically acceptable than alternatives like gasoline taxes, and they reduced fuel usage and greenhouse gas emissions from what they would have been without such standards.” Hakes has held numerous energy leadership positions, including head of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and has published three books on energy and environmental history.
The report’s principal findings include:
- The argument, often expressed by the president and other ardent critics of government regulation, that mileage efficiency standards have significantly limited vehicle choice is easily refuted by available data. Hundreds of models currently at car lots demonstrate that options are much more robust today than they were when efficiency standards were introduced fifty years ago.
- The government needs to update efficiency standards on a regular basis. The lengthy period of inaction between 1977 and 2007 created problems that linger today. If the current policy of ignoring fuel waste from cars and trucks continues, it is difficult to conceive how the United States could achieve previously announced climate protection goals, or even at less ambitious levels.
- Electric vehicles and non-carbon sources of power offer advantages that extend beyond protecting the atmosphere. Thus, momentum in these areas will continue, although not at a pace that will adequately address the urgency of the climate problem.
- A renewed effort to improve the efficiency of cars and trucks will need to address what the report calls the challenge of “heavyweights on the highway.” The trendline in vehicle market share constitutes one of the most dramatic stories in modern American energy history. In 1975, cars accounted for 81% of sales, compared to 19% for light-duty trucks. By 2024, the numbers had moved sharply toward larger vehicles. Light-duty trucks commanded 63% of the market, as cars fell to 37%. The shift to heavier vehicles sharply reduced the environmental benefits of efficiency standards.
- The transportation sector has been the weak link since the 2015 Paris climate conference, after which the U.S. established 2005 as the base year from which it would make promised emissions reductions. From 2005 to 2024, carbon emissions from U.S. cars and light trucks fell 7%, hardly a pace over almost two decades that would convince the world Americans were firmly committed to climate protection. To provide context, emissions from the residential sector fell 33% over this same period, while for the commercial sector, the decline was 29%.
- American drivers will constitute a shrinking share of the world market. Thus, an inability of American cars to compete in foreign markets, exacerbated by protectionism and lax efficiency requirements, could have increasingly adverse consequences for the U.S. economy.
- If vehicle efficiency standards are revived, additional policies will be needed to counter the negative effects of transportation on the climate. A multi-pronged approach that includes trade with countries that produce climate-friendly products, mass transit, adjusting gasoline taxes to overall inflation since they were last updated, driver education, enforcement of speed limits, and investments in climate-friendly technologies can deliver optimal results.
