WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) today joined Sens. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and a bicameral group of 113 other lawmakers in urging the Biden administration’s U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to withdraw its proposed rule regarding Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and light-duty trucks. 

Under the Biden administration’s proposed rule, automakers would be required to more than double their average fleet-wide fuel economy in fewer than 10 years. This requirement would force American car manufacturers to produce electric vehicles to meet the new CAFE standards.

“We write to express our deep concern with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s proposed Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars and light trucks, which represent yet another attempt by this Administration to use the rulemaking process to impose its climate agenda on American families,” the lawmakers explained.  

“NHTSA’s proposed standards, when coupled with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) distinct, extreme tailpipe emissions proposal, amount to a de facto mandate for electric vehicles (EVs) that threatens to raise costs and restrict consumer choice, harm U.S. businesses, degrade our energy and national security and hand the keys of our automotive industry over to our adversaries, especially China,” they continued.

“The proposal issued in July is mere virtue signaling for this Administration’s extreme climate agenda, but it would actually have only limited impact on emissions while strengthening foreign adversaries and harming American workers and consumers,” concluded the lawmakers.

Kennedy also urged leaders to prevent the Biden administration’s EPA from implementing its rule to require more than two-thirds of all vehicles sold in the U.S. to be fully electric in fewer than nine years.

The full letter is available here.