{"id":452385,"date":"2026-09-30T19:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452385\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T19:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T19:18:10","slug":"texas-railroad-commissioner-praises-trumps-rollback-of-fuel-economy-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/452385\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas Railroad Commissioner Praises Trump\u2019s Rollback of Fuel Economy Standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian<\/a> is praising the Trump administration\u2019s decision to lower federal fuel economy standards, arguing the changes will reduce regulatory burdens on automakers and expand consumer choice.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Department of Transportation finalized the new standards<\/a> under its \u201cFreedom Means Affordable Cars\u201d initiative. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates the new standards would achieve a fleetwide average fuel economy target of 34.9 miles per gallon by the 2031 model year, down from the Biden administration\u2019s 50.4 mpg target.<\/p>\n

According to the department, the revised standards are projected to reduce the average cost of a new vehicle by $1,300, save Americans $138 billion over five years, and prevent more than 300,000 serious injuries and 1,900 deaths by encouraging consumers to purchase newer vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t just about fuel standards,\u201d Christian said in a statement. \u201cIt\u2019s about putting an end to the idea that Washington bureaucrats should be able to dictate what Americans drive, how manufacturers build their products or what energy sources our economy uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christian\u2019s comments follow other recent efforts to reverse federal climate and energy policies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Trump administration repealed the Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s 2009 Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding in February 2026 and has also eliminated certain incentives for vehicle start-stop technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cSound energy policy should be grounded in real-world conditions, not mandates built around unrealistic climate targets,\u201d Christian said in his statement on the fuel economy standards. He added that he supports the administration\u2019s efforts to reverse federal policies he believes have increased energy costs and harmed American manufacturing and energy production.<\/p>\n

Christian has previously criticized government subsidies and regulations involving energy policy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In September, he opposed<\/a> the Railroad Commission\u2019s approval of ExxonMobil\u2019s carbon capture and storage permit, arguing that government incentives could increase costs for consumers.\u00a0The commission approved the permit in a 2-1 vote, with Christian casting the lone dissenting vote. He said he remained concerned about the project\u2019s long-term safety and the taxpayer subsidies supporting carbon capture initiatives. <\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

\n A Dallas native and proud Texan, Riley is a writing fellow for Texas Scorecard and a junior at the University of Texas at Austin. She combines her passion for writing with a commitment to covering the people, policies, and ideas shaping the Lone Star State. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian is praising the Trump administration\u2019s decision to lower federal fuel economy standards, arguing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":452386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28,840],"class_list":["post-452385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-transportation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=452385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/452385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/452386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=452385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=452385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=452385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}