TRENTON – Attorney General Jennifer Davenport today joined a coalition of 26 states, counties, and cities in filing a lawsuit against the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), challenging its final rule that weakens Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for new passenger cars and light trucks. Strong fuel economy regulations help consumers save money at the pump, and this federal rollback would cost drivers even more under today's high gas prices.
Historically, NHTSA’s standards have reduced consumer costs by improving vehicle fuel efficiency, 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, harming both consumers and the planet at the exact moment when global gasoline prices are soaring.
In the lawsuit filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the coalition alleges that NHTSA’s new rule is contrary to law and contravenes its mandate from Congress to set fuel-economy standards at their “maximum feasible” level. Far from achieving this “maximum feasible” requirement, NHTSA’s backsliding standards for the next five years require less efficiency than what the U.S. fleet actually achieved in 2021.
"Every mile driven impacts our children's future,” said Attorney General Davenport. “When we set high fuel efficiency standards, we cut the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change while saving families money at the pump—proof that protecting the environment and consumers go hand in hand."
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, and the need to conserve energy. When setting 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, 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.
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 and, if allowed to take effect, would exacerbate the affordability challenges consumers are already facing due to rising gas prices.
NHTSA’s rule relies on 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 attempts 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 ignores the hundreds of billions of dollars in future damages from climate change-driven disasters—spurred by increased fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions—effectively setting these costs at zero, contrary to scientific evidence.
Defying a longstanding and repeatedly affirmed Congressional mandate, NHTSA asserts that the United States does not need to conserve energy after all, continuing the Trump Administration’s pattern of benefiting the fossil fuel industry at the expense of American consumers. Finally, NHTSA’s rule will end the CAFE credit trading program in 2028, which will significantly harm electric vehicle industries that employ Americans and support the economy.
In today’s lawsuit, the coalition alleges that NHTSA’s final rule is arbitrary and capricious and violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
In filing this lawsuit, Attorney General Davenport joins the attorneys general of California, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai‘i, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, 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.
