The New Fuel Economy Target Is 34.9 mpg by 2031

The Department of Transportation has released a new rule for the country's Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Ars Technica describes it as a rollback to fuel economy numbers not seen in more than a decade — below even the low standards implemented in 2020, the last time President Trump was in power. The new goal is 34.9 mpg by model year 2031. Ars's framing of the change is openly hostile, calling the rule part of a federal war on fuel efficiency that discourages, in its words, the very idea of economical vehicles. Strip out the adjectives and the concrete change is a target that asks for less than what was on the books before it.