At House hearing, witnesses for Trump admin defend fuel-economy rollback

Enlarge / Cars and trucks drive along Interstate 75/85 June 25, 2003 in Atlanta, Georgia. (credit: Erik S. Lesser/Getty Images)

The Trump administration has been trying to roll back Obama-era fuel-economy standards for passenger vehicles out to model year 2025. But the state of California and its allies have been fighting this rollback in every venue possible.

Today, energy and commerce subcommittees from the House of Representatives held a joint hearing to question the creators of the proposed fuel-economy-standards rollback. William Wehrum, the Assistant Administrator in the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Heidi King, the Deputy Administrator at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), both responded to questions from representatives on how the two agencies came to propose the new fuel-economy rollback.

Later in the day, a second panel included Mary Nichols, the chairperson of the California Air Resource Board (CARB), which has been the leader of the fight against a fuel economy rollback.