For Immediate Release: November 16, 2011

The proposed CAFE standards released today by the Obama Administration will cost American jobs, push new cars and trucks out of the price range of many working families, seriously endanger the capabilities of work trucks, and hurt the auto industry nationwide, according to House Republican Conference Secretary John Carter (R-TX31).
“A $3,000 per vehicle cost increase will drive many low-income consumers out of the new car market and cost auto industry jobs,” says Carter.  “We all want higher mileage vehicles, but we have to increase fleet fuel efficiency with commonsense plans to reach achievable goals, not the kind of economic time-bomb planted today with this proposal.”
Carter, co-author of the Austria-Carter Amendment to this year’s Interior/Environment Appropriations bill, largely blames the regulatory overreach on the Administration’s refusal to comply with current law on agency jurisdiction over CAFE standards.  
“NHTSA is the only agency authorized under law to regulate CAFE standards,” says Carter, “and the intrusion of EPA and the state of California has rendered a totally unreasonable, unachievable, and unacceptable regulatory result.  Not only is this a bad proposal, it is a violation of the Rule of Law.”
Carter says the new standards, if allowed to stand, will be especially damaging to the light truck market.  “If implemented, these rules will greatly undermine the ability of farmers, ranchers, and others to acquire trucks with the workload capabilities necessary to do their jobs.”