The U.S. Department of Transportation announced a significant reversal of fuel efficiency regulations for new cars and light trucks. Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards support hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs producing fuel-saving technologies and have a proven track record of driving innovation.

While the United States steps back from supporting efficient vehicle technologies, other countries have invested heavily in efficient and electric vehicles (EVs) as consumers seek relief from volatile gas prices.

In response to today’s announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance released the following statement from Executive Director Jason Walsh:

“For decades, fuel economy standards have driven innovation and job growth. While the rest of the world charges forward, this administration is hell bent on hamstringing our auto industry’s chance of remaining competitive in the global market. Framing the CAFE rollback as a manufacturing victory ignores global realities and—like most of this administration’s actions—will hurt our manufacturing sector. Today’s announcement will hurt workers in the U.S. auto industry and will result in working people spending more money at the pump and breathing more air pollution.”