It can be easy to forget in a midterm election year, but presidents have immense power to drive up consumer costs. President Joe Biden was doing exactly that for car buyers until President Donald Trump took back the White House. This week, the Transportation Department took another step toward making it easier for Americans to buy the cars they want at affordable prices.
On Sept. 28, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration lowered the projected 2031 fleet requirement from approximately 50 miles per gallon to 35. That still represents an increase from roughly 30 miles per gallon in 2024. The new rule will give manufacturers greater freedom to build affordable vehicles that fit their customers’ needs.
Biden approached the automobile market from the opposite direction. Rather than letting buyers determine which vehicles manufacturers produced, his administration used federal regulations to push manufacturers toward electric vehicles. The Biden Environmental Protection Agency imposed stringent greenhouse gas restrictions, while his Transportation Department imposed increasingly demanding fuel economy standards.
Together, Biden’s fuel economy rules, emissions restrictions, and subsidies created a backdoor electric vehicle mandate. His message to automakers was clear: Build more electric cars, whether customers want them or not.
Companies that fell short of the fuel economy requirements could buy compliance credits from electric vehicle manufacturers. That meant companies selling gasoline-powered cars paid their electric competitors to satisfy Washington.
Those payments added to the cost of selling conventional cars. When manufacturers passed those costs along, Americans buying the cars they wanted helped subsidize the electric cars Democrats wanted them to buy.
Americans rejected this scheme first with their wallets and then at the ballot box. While electric vehicles’ share of new vehicle sales grew during the Biden administration, from approximately 3% in 2021 to 8% in 2024, the pace of growth was nowhere near fast enough to reach the 50% target Biden had set for 2030.
Polling also showed Americans were not ready to give up their gasoline-powered vehicles. A clear majority, 59%, opposed phasing out new gasoline-powered cars and trucks by 2035. Since the federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for new electric vehicle purchases expired in September 2025, electric vehicle sales have headed down, not up.
There are good reasons for the reversal. The average new electric vehicle sold for nearly $55,000 in August, almost 10% more than the average non-electric vehicle. Buyers paying more are also getting more problems — Consumer Reports finds that electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids have about 80% more reported problems than gasoline-only cars, on average.
Biden’s answer was to pressure manufacturers to build more of these expensive vehicles anyway. Biden pushed manufacturers to pour money into electric vehicles rather than focusing on affordable cars their customers wanted. Families shopping for transportation were being forced to help finance a political project.
Trump’s new rule puts those families first. The administration estimates the new regulations will reduce the cost of a new vehicle by approximately $1,300. Lower compliance costs give manufacturers room to lower prices. Greater flexibility lets them devote more resources to the cars, trucks, and SUVs Americans choose to buy. A contractor who needs a pickup, a rural family traveling long distances, and a young worker buying a first car deserve vehicles designed around their needs and budgets.
SANCTUARY DEMOCRATS ARE PUTTING AMERICANS LAST
Voters are understandably frustrated with the high cost of gas and groceries. But things could be worse.
Democratic states such as California, New York, and Massachusetts have much higher living costs than fast-growing Republican states such as Florida, Texas, and South Carolina. That isn’t an accident. Whether through environmental regulations, labor laws, or taxes, Democrats make everyday necessities more expensive. Trump’s new fuel economy standards are a reminder that different policies can deliver more affordable choices.
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[ H/T Washington Examiner ]
