The Trump administration's move to eliminate the Obama-era "endangerment finding" could lower the cost of new vehicles by about $2,400, EPA Deputy Administrator David Fotouhi said Monday on Newsmax.
Fotouhi told "Wake Up America" that the action would ease regulatory pressure on automakers and restore consumer choice on dealership lots.
He called the proposal "the largest action of deregulation in U.S. history," projecting $1.3 trillion in overall savings and immediate impacts for car buyers.
"It will bring down the price of new cars by about $2,400 per vehicle," Fotouhi said. "This is designed to prevent auto manufacturers from building cars that people don't want and restoring consumer choice on the car lot so that people can pick the vehicles that work best for their families."
The rollback centers on rescinding the Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 determination that greenhouse gases endanger public health — a finding that has served as the legal foundation for federal vehicle emissions standards for more than a decade.
Fotouhi argued that the existing regulatory framework has forced automakers to push electric vehicles even when demand has lagged, distorting the broader auto market.
"Manufacturers lose money on most of the EVs they produce," he said, pointing to recent disclosures from Ford Motor Co. that it has sustained significant losses on its electric vehicle lines. "They make up for that by raising the price of other vehicles — gas-powered vehicles."
By easing emissions mandates, Fotouhi said, automakers would no longer need to offset EV losses by increasing sticker prices on traditional internal combustion engine models.
Critics of the move argue that rolling back the endangerment finding would undermine efforts to combat climate change and reduce vehicle emissions.
Environmental groups have warned the action could face swift legal challenges, noting that the EPA's authority under the Clean Air Act has been upheld in prior court decisions.
Fotouhi, however, contended that the statute was never intended to regulate global greenhouse gas emissions on the scale imposed in recent years, calling the approach a "mismatch" between a 1970s-era law and modern climate policy.
In addition to price reductions, Fotouhi said consumers could see tangible changes in vehicle features if the rollback moves forward — including the potential elimination of automatic stop-start systems that shut off engines at red lights to conserve fuel.
Manufacturers received regulatory credits for installing the technology under prior emissions standards, he said, even though many drivers found the feature frustrating.
"Manufacturers can feel free to remove that and disable it from new vehicles," Fotouhi said. "There's no need for that anymore."
He added that some drivers have complained that stop-start systems put additional strain on starters and have led to vehicles stalling in traffic.
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Brian Freeman ✉
Brian Freeman, a Newsmax writer based in Israel, has more than three decades writing and editing about culture and politics for newspapers, online and television.
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