HYDE-SMITH COSPONSORS BILL TO END COSTLY, DISTORTED VEHICLE FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS

HYDE-SMITH COSPONSORS BILL TO END COSTLY, DISTORTED VEHICLE FUEL ECONOMY STANDARDS

Senators Move to Eliminate CAFE Standards, Regulations that Exceed Congressional Intent, Impose Costly & Unnecessary Mandates

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) recently helped introduce legislation to help make motor vehicles more affordable for American families by eliminating a 70s-era regulatory regime that has driven up sticker prices.

Hyde-Smith joined U.S. Senator Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) in introducing the Restoring Affordability in Automobile Manufacturing (RAAM) Act (S.5092). The bill would eliminate the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, which have gradually increased sticker prices for new motor vehicles and laid the statutory groundwork for mandating the types of cars available to consumers, as witnessed by the Biden administration's effort to impose unrealistic fuel economy targets to achieve a backdoor electric vehicle mandate.

"Over the past 50 years, the CAFE standards have morphed into a big government weapon for regulators to push radical climate agendas and drive vehicle prices up. The Biden administration tried to use it as a club to force EVs on everyone. The RAAM Act would put an end to this government overreach and allow consumers and auto manufacturers to set the market," Hyde-Smith said.

"The Biden-era CAFE standards turned an energy-security program into a de facto electric vehicle mandate, beyond Congress's original intent to improve fuel economy and strengthen our nation's energy security," said Crapo. "Today's CAFE standards distort the automobile market, saddle manufacturers with costly compliance requirements that drive up vehicle costs for hardworking families and do little to shield Americans from the volatility of global oil markets. The RAAM Act would repeal the costly, outdated CAFE program and put consumers - not federal regulators - back in the driver's seat when it comes to vehicle choice."

Enacted in 1975 following the OPEC oil embargo to reduce petroleum consumption, improve fuel economy, and strengthen the nation's energy security, CAFE standards have distorted the automobile market by encouraging manufacturers to design vehicles to satisfy federal regulatory requirements rather than consumer demand, while increasing compliance costs that are ultimately passed on to consumers through higher vehicle prices.

CAFE has also been used increasingly to advance costly climate policy beyond its original focus on energy conservation and fuel security. The proposed Biden-era CAFE standard would have dramatically raised costs, restricted consumer choice, harmed U.S. businesses, and put the U.S. automotive industry at a disadvantage.

Enacting the RAAM Act would eliminate the underlying federal statute that could be used by a future administration to reestablish the Biden-like regulations or impose even stricter standards. It complements congressional Republicans abolishing civil monetary penalties for CAFE standards noncompliance as part of the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. Building on that progress, the Trump Administration reversed the Biden-era standards through executive order in 2025.

S.5092, which would eliminate CAFE standards effective model year 2029, is also cosponsored by U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), and Alan Armstrong (R-Okla.). The RAAM Act is supported by the American Petroleum Institute.

In January 2024, Hyde-Smith also joined Crapo in urging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to withdraw the proposed CAFE rule. Hyde-Smith and other members of the Mississippi congressional delegation in July 2024 also fought to have the Biden administration overturn its de facto electric mandate on trucks, tractors, buses and semis.

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