Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards—CAFÉ—have always been a political football. One of the primary weapons of the Climate Change left, they’ve most recently been used to try to force Automakers to build electric vehicles—EVs--and Americans to buy EVs they don’t want, can’t afford and that don’t meet their needs.

Even before Donald Trump’s reelection, EVs were well into a doom loop. Americans largely realized EVs couldn’t live up to extravagant green promises, and when the federal $7500 tax credit expired in September of 2025, EV sales, already sharply declining, became EV dumpster fires. American and foreign automakers suddenly, after losing tens of billions on EVs, began to cancel EV plans and all but eliminate production.

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Among the problems of abusing CAFÉ standards is forcing automakers to build vehicles Americans don’t want while simultaneously making them more expensive. President Trump is reversing that damaging trend:  

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed significantly reducing the fuel economy requirements from model years 2022 to 2031, requiring 34.5 miles per gallon on average by 2031, down from 50.4 miles per gallon (21.4 km per liter).

For a change, reality is descending on DC:

The adjustment in the fuel efficiency requirements was driven, in part, by the increasing realization that car manufacturers could not meet the unrealistic, utopian demands of climate crisis cultists. The change will result in more affordable and safer cars for Americans. 

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The gutting of the Biden-era standard aligns with the dawning realization that the climate crisis is nothing more than a massive hoax to shift money and power into the hands of progressive activists and power-hungry, globalist bureaucrats. Of course, the environmentalists are in hysterics.

The New York Times, which recently admitted defeat in the ‘Information War’ over climate change, is in most profound grief.

That grief is provoked by the realization that the American public has realized Climate Change was a grotesquely expensive scam to benefit the Democrat Party, and they’re not going to continue to be fooled and fleeced. Pete Buttigieg was worried about racist bridges and roads.  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is actually working to save Americans money and reduce burdensome regulations: 

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Duffy said the actions the administration is taking are a prime example of how Democrats’ rhetoric on “affordability is a lie.”

Biden and Buttigieg…used EVs and hybrids to come up with a 62 mile-an-hour per gallon standard, which the car companies will tell you, is completely unattainable. So they spent a lot of money on technology trying to meet the unattainable standard, driving up the cost of a car, number one, and then number two, if they couldn’t meet the unattainable standard, they had to trade for carbon, costing billions of dollars, and again, driving up the price of the cars. [skip]

“These rules are going to allow the automakers to make vehicles that Americans want to purchase, not vehicles that Joe Biden and Buttigieg want them to build, which is important,” Duffy detailed.

“But also, this is important for American jobs. The more cars we sell, the more jobs we have in this country, and so this is jobs, this is freedom, and this is common sense,” the secretary added.

Ford CEO Jim Farley has been among the loudest EV cheerleaders, touting Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup as the future and pledging to make a substantial portion of Ford’s production EVs. But Ford has lost billions, as much as $130,000 on every EV it has made. If that wasn’t bad enough, Ford’s November 2025 EV sales dropped 60% over last November and Ford is reportedly about to drop Lightning production entirely. With those kinds of losses and Trump’s commonsense reforms, Farley—and presumably Ford shareholders—has suddenly seen the fossil fuel-powered light. 

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The Stellantis CEO agrees and spoke of additional benefits to the economy:

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EV CAFE averages were always composed of fairy dust and unicorn farts. Accurately informing the public was never their purpose. EV range figures were also outright lies. Absent ideal conditions, virtually no one could attain them.

Thanks to President Trump, Americans are likely to enjoy a new era of affordable choices and honesty in car buying, and their tax dollars won’t be subsidizing EVs for wealthy greenie virtue signalers.

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Mike McDaniel is a USAF veteran, classically trained musician, Japanese and European fencer, life-long athlete, firearm instructor, retired police officer and high school and college English teacher. He is a published author and blogger. His home blog is Stately McDaniel Manor.