Hours after being sworn in as the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy took aim at the main way the federal government regulates miles per gallon for cars and pickup trucks — also a principal way that it regulates air pollution and addresses climate change. Duffy ordered the federal agency in charge of fuel economy standards to reverse them as soon as possible. The standards have been in place since the 1970s energy crisis and were intended to conserve fuel and save consumers money at the gas pump.

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Duffy says eliminating the rules will increase Americans' access to the full range of gasoline vehicles they need and can afford.

Others disagree. “This will raise consumer’s costs at the pump, increase tailpipe pollution and jeopardize U.S. automakers’ future, and no one voted for any of it. The only beneficiaries will be oil executives and China’s auto industry, which will be happy to sell electric vehicles around the world with little U.S. competition,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s Safe Climate Transport Campaign.

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