Two lobbying groups representing auto manufacturers have written letters urging the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, to reverse<br />a decision last month by the Obama administration to move forward with tougher fuel-economy standards that carmakers are supposed to meet by 2025.<br />Environmentalists said the lobbying groups overstated the difficulty<br />and cost of reaching the 2025 targets, which require an average fuel-economy rating of 54.5 miles per gallon across a company’s entire fleet sold in the United States.<br />To comply with the 2025 targets, more popular models, like S. U.V.s, would need new technology, which could raise prices for consumers.<br />The Obama administration’s fuel-economy targets “threaten to depress an industry<br />that can ill afford spiraling regulatory costs,” Mitch Bainwol, the chief executive of the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, wrote in a letter on Tuesday.<br />Even if those targets are relaxed, the automakers will still need to comply with emissions rules set by California<br />and several other states with tougher standards than the E. P.A.’s.<br />The 2017 requirement for a large car is 33 miles per gallon, or about 25 miles per gallon in real-world driving.
