Drivers will pay the price for Trump’s fuel economy rollbacks

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This week, the Transportation Department finalized its plan to roll back fuel efficiency standards for automobiles. Automakers will now be required to achieve an average fuel efficiency of 34.9 miles per gallon for new cars and light trucks starting in 2031, down from the standard of 50.4 miles per gallon established during the Biden administration.

President Donald Trump claims that lowering the fuel standards will save consumers money. In actuality, it is yet one more way that his policies are making life more expensive for most Americans. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s own assessment finds that reducing the fuel efficiency standard will force drivers of new cars to pay an average of $1,624 more for gas over the lifetime of the vehicle. That outweighs the estimated savings on car prices.

Consumers are already struggling with sky-high prices at the pump, which have spiked in recent months as the war with Iran grinds on. The national average price for unleaded gas is around $4.40 per gallon, up about 40% from a year ago.

Much of the world is responding to soaring gas prices by speeding up the transition to electric vehicles. Consumers in Europe and Asia, bolstered by supportive government policies and/​or a flood of cheap Chinese models, are buying EVs in droves. This year, a record-breaking 28% of new cars sold globally will be battery-powered, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency.

In the U.S., we have neither supportive federal policies nor cheap imports to ease the pain of the current moment. EVs cost more here than in other countries, and the Trump administration has worked hard to stymie efforts to make electric vehicles more accessible.

States have managed to find ways to keep some momentum on EV adoption going. This summer, the Newsom administration launched a $3,500 rebate for first-time EV buyers. Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and other states also provide various EV incentives and rebates.

As gas prices surge, other daily costs are also going up. The president’s attacks on renewables are stopping much-needed power from coming onto the grid, which will contribute to already-high energy bills. His mandates that aging coal plants stay online past their retirement dates are costing utility customers millions. Meanwhile, his tariffs have raised prices on an array of consumer goods.

Transportation is the second-largest household expense after housing, so the pain Americans feel when filling up their cars is not marginal. But it’s the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Trump administration policies that render it harder for Americans to make ends meet.

More big energy stories

The long-awaited permitting deal is here

Easing energy development is a white whale for Congress, which has long struggled to come to an agreement on what permitting reform should look like. But this week, lawmakers at least took a step in the right direction.

A bipartisan group of senators unveiled a permitting package on Wednesday after months of closed-door negotiations. At over 400 pages, the bill’s got a lot to unpack: It would streamline transmission development and require power line–boosting tech, helping bring more clean energy online, Jeff St. John reports. And Democrats managed to work in language that aims to prevent presidents from unilaterally blocking projects, as Donald Trump has repeatedly done to the offshore wind industry.

But the deal also includes new limits on landmark environmental laws, plus measures pushed by Republicans that could prevent lawsuits over gas pipelines, oil drilling, and more. Some advocates are torn on whether the package would ultimately be a good thing for the climate or a bad one.

What now? While the White House backs the deal, it could well never make it to the president’s desk. A vote won’t happen until after the November elections, which could shake up the balance of power on Capitol Hill.

It just got harder for farmers to get solar grants

Solar often gets knocked by opponents for taking up agricultural land (even though arrays cover less than 0.1% of the nation’s prime farmland, and can coexist with crops and livestock). But on the ground, lots of farmers embrace the tech as a way to slash utility bills and earn extra revenue.

Now, it’s about to become harder for these individuals to take advantage of the clean energy source. On Thursday, the Trump administration unveiled new restrictions on the Rural Energy for America Program, which has helped thousands of farmers pay for solar over the years. The clampdown limits the size and location of installations, caps awards at a lower share of project cost, and requires farmers to take the leap and put in panels before they can even apply for an award.

The rules are the culmination of over a year of the Trump administration messing with REAP. It had already frozen and then unfrozen funds and canceled a scheduled application period before announcing it would limit funding for solar on farmland. In fact, just a few days before the new REAP rules dropped, a group of farmers, developers, and advocates sued the administration for meddling in the program. They’re hoping a court will declare the changes unlawful — and keep the funds flowing to farmers that want to harvest the sun.

Clean energy news to know this week

Go big or go home: The world’s first utility-scale next-generation geothermal power plant begins selling power to the grid at Fervo Energy’s Cape Station in Utah. (Canary Media)

Heating up: Startup Antora announces plans for a 5.8-GWh thermal battery at a Kansas biorefinery, saying that once complete it will be one of the world’s largest battery storage systems. (Topeka Capital-Journal)

Bill bonanza: California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signs a slate of energy-affordability legislation into law, including bills that boost virtual power plants and legalize balcony solar. (Canary Media, Canary Media)

States fight back: A coalition of 21 states and four cities sue the Trump administration over its move to erase all limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants. (New York Times)

Electric empanadas: A pilot in NYC is helping street food vendors ditch noisy, polluting generators by giving them access to swappable batteries at nearby charging cabinets. (Canary Media)

Nuclear thumbs-up: The Nuclear Regulatory Commission grants the Tennessee Valley Authority a construction permit to build a small modular reactor in the state, though big hurdles still exist as the utility estimates development could be expensive. (New York Times)