2019-01-01_Discover

2016 base

35.5 mpg

Trump freezes

goal at 37 mpg

from 2020-2026

Projected target under

Obama administration

2025 goal

54.5 mpg

MILES PER GALLON

YEAR

30

40

50

60

U.S. Fuel Economy Goals

(Combined average for cars and light trucks)

2016 2018 2020 2022 2024 2026

January/February 2019^ DISCOVER^75

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DAN THORNBERG/SHUTTERSTOCK; YURI GRIPAS/REUTERS; LAURA HUBERS/USFWS; RAWPIXEL.COM/SHUTTERSTOCK; ALISON MACKEY/DISCOVER

Carbon

Emissions

The EPA has

abandoned the Obama

administration’s fuel

economy goals for cars

and light trucks to average

50 mpg by 2025. Seventeen

states and the District of Columbia are

suing the EPA to preserve the policy,

saying the agency has acted against its

own regulations and violated the Clean

Air Act. In August, the EPA proposed rules

that would keep fuel economy standards

flat at 37 mpg from 2020 to 2026.

Water Pollution

In January, the EPA suspended the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which

deined which smaller bodies of water were protected by the 1972 Clean

Water Act. The EPA has said in news releases that it ultimately wants to

repeal the 2015 rule to minimize uncertainty over pollution regulations.

However, critics called foul on the EPA’s claimed motivation because the

2015 rule is actually more speciic about what bodies of water fall under

Clean Water Act protection than

previous policies.

“It’s bunk. The agencies have

identiied no evidence that the

Clean Water Rule adopted in

2015 creates uncertainty,” says Jon

Devine, the director for federal

water policy at the Natural

Resources Defense Council, an

advocacy group. Devine thinks

some administration players are

looking to pacify lobbyists and

corporations they’re cozy with.

“Their friends who are regulated

by the Clean Water Act would

prefer not to deal with the various

pollution control programs that

apply to some of these smaller

features,” like tributaries, lakes

and wetlands, he says.

Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

In early 2017, President Donald Trump

signed an executive order that began

the process of rolling back 2015’s Clean

Water Rule. It details how smaller bodies

of water, such as the prairie potholes

in South Dakota (below), are protected

by pollution control regulations.