Trump trio tout auto regulatory rollbacks as they visit Ohio, Michigan

Washington and Toledo — Three key cabinet officials are using visits to Michigan and Ohio to tout Trump administration policies they say are boosting the auto industry and U.S. manufacturing.

The officials are Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer. Their agencies have tremendous influence over the main federal policy areas — environmental, safety and trade — that impact Michigan’s signature sector.

The trio stopped Friday at Ford Motor Co.’s Ohio Assembly Plant near Cleveland and Stellantis NV’s Toledo Assembly Complex and were scheduled to attend the Detroit Auto Show on Saturday.

The visits come amid intensifying conversations over potential adjustments to the United States-Mexico-Canada free trade accord, which is of keen interest to the auto industry, and speculation that Trump officials could take action within days to nix the final remaining U.S. regulations on vehicle tailpipe emissions. The administration also has proposed a reduction in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, following a move last year to zero out noncompliance fines.

“In this administration, we are rolling back what I would argue is illegal and unattainable for a fuel economy standard,” Duffy told reporters Friday after touring the Jeep Wrangler plant in Toledo. “Thirty-five miles to the gallon for this new fuel economy standard … which is going to, I think, bring prices down and going to allow car companies to offer products that Americans want to buy.”

Zeldin’s EPA promised last year to roll back Biden-era rules that set aggressive greenhouse gas reduction targets for vehicles and proposed revoking an Obama-era legal finding that allowed such regulations in the first place. He said in Toledo those efforts are pressing forward.

“Right now, we are in the process of deciding how to finalize a decision on a proposed repeal to the 2009 Obama-era endangerment finding, and all of the greenhouse gas regulations on light, medium and heavy-duty vehicles from 2010 to 2026, ‘27 beyond,” Zeldin said.

His agency is also targeting the “start-stop” technology used by many automakers to save fuel while stopped, which he claimed “millions of Americans” have spoken out against. Automakers have received regulatory credits for including it in vehicles.

“I guess they should call it a start, stop, start, stop, start and stop feature, it’s annoying. You get to every corner,” he said, and the engine pauses.

Automakers have been wary of the EPA’s deregulatory moves, saying they want relief but suggesting that enforceable rules of some kind should remain in place. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, the industry’s top lobbying group in Washington, has taken a middling tack on the issue.

“We have been pretty clear that the Biden-era emissions rules, given current market dynamics, were simply not achievable, and we think it is good that the agency reassess that and set a new set of rules going forward,” the group’s CEO John Bozzella said in a Thursday interview at the Detroit Auto Show.

“That’s really what we’ve focused on, is getting the balance right and making sure that we continue to support emissions reductions, and doing so in a way that’s aligned with customer wants and needs now and in the future. So that’s been the total focus of our engagement with the regulators,” he added.

The transportation sector, mostly due to consumer vehicles, is the United States’ leading direct source of climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions.

The previous administration, Duffy said in December, “illegally twisted mileage standards to create an electric vehicle mandate — jacking up car prices for American families and forcing manufacturers to produce vehicles no one wanted.”

The Department of Transportation has estimated that the proposed rules would save families more than $900 off the average cost of a new vehicle and reduce roadway fatalities by helping Americans buy new, safer cars. The agency also underscored its message ahead of the Duffy visit by highlighting recent writedowns, business losses and reversals by the Detroit Three automakers — which also includes General Motors Co. — related to EV investments.

“If the market wants EVs, I think we should leave it to the automakers to make more EV vehicles,” Duffy said Friday. “This is not a war on EVs at all. There’s a lot of people that love them and think they’re wonderful, and they work for them, and they should be able to buy them. It’s just that we shouldn’t use government policy to encourage EV purchases, all the while penalizing a combustion engine, which most Americans want to buy.”

Environmental groups have countered the Trump administration’s affordability argument by suggesting that additional consumer spending on gas under a lax regulatory regime would eclipse any savings.

“Drivers will be paying hundreds of dollars more at the pump every year if these rules are put in place,” said Kathy Harris, director for clean vehicles at the Natural Resources Defense Council, after DOT announced its latest CAFE proposal.

She added: “That’s only good news for Big Oil, which has been given handouts time and time again by this administration.”

As the Trump administration officials touted efforts to bring car costs, average new car prices have risen of late. Buyers paid $50,326 on average in December, according to Cox Automotive, a record high. Edmunds also reported a record for the month.

Still, Greer pointed to new federal data showing the Consumer Price Index for vehicles, a key measure of inflation, did not grow in December. Higher tariffs on parts and vehicles ordered by President Donald Trump, he said, had not caused a spike in vehicle prices. But there is evidence that the tariffs have helped drive prices and fees placed on new cars higher.

“We have car companies who want to have market share,” Greer said. “And so whatever effects those tariffs may have on various parts of the supply chain, they’re not really getting down to the consumer.”

gschwab@detroitnews.com

lramseth@detroitnews.com

Staff Writer Breana Noble contributed.