--- title: "Trump Announces Plan to Make Cars Pollute More" description: "President Trump announced a plan to slash fuel efficiency regulations, allowing automakers to build more gas-guzzling cars." date: "2025-12-04" modified: "2025-12-04" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/trump-plan-cars-pollute-more" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Trump Announces Plan to Make Cars Pollute More ![President Trump announced a plan to slash fuel efficiency regulations, allowing automakers to build more gas-guzzling cars.]() *Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images* The year of the gas guzzler, it seems, will soon be upon us. On Wednesday, president Trump announced plans to drastically lower fuel efficiency standards for new cars and pick-up trucks, the [*New York Times* reports](), claiming the move will save over $100 billion over the next five years and lower the average price tag of new vehicles by $1,000. But both symbolically and in actual effect, the move would be firmly putting Biden era environmental policy in the rear view mirror, ditching regulations and consumer incentives to encourage the adoption of electric vehicles. Head honchos from America's Big Three gushed about the plan. "As America's largest auto producer, we appreciate President Trump's leadership in aligning fuel economy standards with market realities," said Ford CEO Jim Farley, [per the *Associated Press*](). Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa praised the action as helping "realign" fuel efficiency standards "with real world market conditions." The plan continues Trump's pattern of giving [massive concessions to automakers and the fossil fuels industry](), along with his [broader conviction that climate change]() is a "hoax." Under the new plan, car companies would need to achieve an average of 34.5 miles per gallon in the 2031 model year across their entire fleet, down from 50.4 miles per gallon that the Biden-era regulations would've required. That 50 miles per gallon would have been a high bar for gas-powered cars to achieve. The point of setting it so high was to encourage automakers to sell more EVs, which would drive down greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the US. In 2022, the US emitted over 6.3 billion metric tons of the stuff. Per the *NYT*, the Biden administration estimated that its stringent fuel efficiency requirements would save $23 billion in fuel costs and prevent more than 710 million metric tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted by 2050. Failure to meet the efficiency standards would result in hefty fines. Trump eliminated the fines this summer, and ended a program that provided tax credits up to $7,500 for buying EVs. Now, the rules that those fines were supposed to be enforcing are going on the chopping block, too. Trump claims that the move will help lower the cost of new cars, which have been surging since the COVID-19 pandemic crippled supply chains in 2020 and never went down even as manufacturing returned to normal. In September, the [average price of a new car]() surpassed $50,000, a record high. It remains to be seen if the relaxed regulations will help drive prices down, especially as Trump's whirlwind tariffs will make it costlier to import the car parts that all automakers are dependent on, not to mention that less fuel efficient cars will cost more to fill up. "From day one I've been taking action to make buying a car more affordable." Trump said at the White House event, per the *AP*, surrounded by some of the auto industry's top executives. In addition to capitalizing on Americans' outrage over rising costs, the administration also appears to be trying to sell the move by cashing in on nostalgia. "This rule will actually allow you to bring back the 1970s station wagon," transportation secretary — and acting NASA administrator — Sean Duffy [said Wednesday on *CNBC*](), referring to a class of vehicles that got MPGs that barely surpassed single-digit territory. "Maybe a little wood paneling on the side. We can bring back choice to consumers." **More on Trump:** [*Republicans Complain That Cars Have Become Too Safe, Say It Must Be Reversed*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()