Thus, restricting EPA from punishing past inadvertent behavior would benefit both the economy and the environment. This rider would prohibit the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration from further tightening Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Enacted in response to the oil crisis in 1973, CAFE was designed to maintain stable, low oil prices by reducing demand. The primary support for continuing the program now comes from the environmental lobby, which sees CAFE as a permanent way to conserve energy. Experience indicates that the program has serious unintended consequences.
Tighter standards yield little if any benefit but impose tremendous social and economic costs.
The social costs include the additional deaths and serious injuries caused by cars that, while fuel efficient, are less safe because they are of lighter construction. Terminating the CAFE program would save thousands of lives. This is a high price to pay for a government program that yields questionable benefits. CAFE standards also reduce the affordability of new cars and encourage consumers to keep less fuel efficient cars for a longer time. This sticker price increase would lead consumers to keep their older, less fuel efficient autos longer, which in turn would increase pollution by an estimated 4 percent by 2010.5 Tighter CAFE standards could be devastating to average families.