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Trump proposes slashing fuel efficiency standards for passenger cars
Traffic on Interstate 80 in San Pablo, California, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
President Donald Trump on Wednesday proposed big cuts to strict fuel economy standards for passenger cars enacted under the Biden administration.
“We are officially terminating Joe Biden’s ridiculously burdensome, horrible actually, CAFE standards that imposed expensive restrictions,” Trump said at the Oval Office, flanked by the CEOs of Ford Motor and Stellantis.
The Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards date back to 1975 and have been tightened over the years to make vehicles more efficient.
Former President Joe Biden had required automakers to increase the fuel efficiency of passenger cars and light trucks to about 50 miles per gallon by 2031. These stricter standards were expected to stimulate the production and sale of electric vehicles in the U.S.
The standards proposed by the Trump administration would require cars to get about 34 miles to the gallon by 2031, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Trump has sought to dismantle pollution regulations and federal support for electric vehicles as well as renewable energy since taking office.
The oil industry group the American Petroleum Institute has lobbied the Trump administration to repeal the Biden fuel economy standards, contending that they aim to phase out liquid fuel vehicles.
The announcement was attended by Ford CEO Jim Farley and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa, as well as a plant manager for General Motors from Michigan.
Ford CEO Jim Farley and Stellantis CEO Antonio Filosa listen as U.S. President Donald Trump announces new fuel economy standards, in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 3, 2025.
Brian Snyder | Reuters
Many of the officials in attendance, including U.S. dealers, said the new standards are more in line with the vehicles customers want to buy rather than the more costly ones automakers have been pushed to produce due to regulations.
Trump and other officials also touted the new regulations as assisting in vehicle affordability, which has been an ongoing concern for the automotive industry, as the average new vehicle purchased hovers around $50,000.
The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group that represents the majority of automakers operating in the U.S., also praised the cuts.
“We’re reviewing NHTSA’s announcement, but we’re glad the agency has proposed new fuel economy standards,” John Bozzella, CEO of the organization, said in a statement. “We’ve been clear and consistent: The current CAFE rules finalized under the previous administration are extremely challenging for automakers to achieve given the current marketplace for EVs.”
U.S. EV leader Tesla did not respond for comment regarding the reduced standards.
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau and Lora Kolodny contributed to this report.
The supply chain risk designation of the artificial intelligence firm is a first for a US company.
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Thomas Fuller | SOPA Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images
UniQure needs to run another study to prove that its gene therapy “actually helps people with Huntington’s disease,” a senior U.S. Food and Drug Administration official said on a call with reporters Thursday.
The official, who requested anonymity before discussing sensitive information, confirmed the agency has asked the company to run a placebo controlled trial of its treatment, which is administered directly into the brain. UniQure has said that type of study isn’t ethical because it would require putting people under general anesthesia for hours, a characterization the official disputed.
“So what is really going on? UniQure is the latest company to make a failed therapy for Huntington’s patients,” the official said. “They likely acknowledge or understand at some deep level that their trial failed years ago, and instead of doing the right thing and running the correct clinical study, UniQure is performing a distorted or manipulated comparison in the mind of FDA.”
The comments mark the latest development in a messy public spat between UniQure and the FDA, and as the agency comes under fire for a number of recent drug approval application rejections, including some where companies have accused it of going back on previous guidance. FDA Commissioner Marty Makary in an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick last week seemingly criticized UniQure’s gene therapy for Huntington’s disease. Makary didn’t name UniQure but described its treatment.
UniQure then accused the FDA of reversing its stance that the company’s clinical trial data would be sufficient to seek approval. UniQure’s study used an outside database to measure how patients with Huntington’s disease might decline without treatment, known as an external control. UniQure has said it wouldn’t be feasible to run a true randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled study, considered the gold standard, because it wouldn’t be ethical to make people undergo a sham hours-long brain surgery.
The FDA official said the agency “never agreed to accept this distorted comparison” and the FDA “never makes such assurances.” Instead, the “FDA will always say, ‘Well, we have to see the data when we get it.'”
UniQure didn’t immediately comment.
The company’s stock rose more than 10% on Thursday and has fallen 58% this year as of Thursday afternoon.
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US mortgage rates rise to 6% after three-week slide as oil-driven bond yields climb – The Times of India
The average long-term US mortgage rate edged higher this week, ending a three-week decline as bond yields rose amid oil-price pressures linked to the war with Iran.The benchmark 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 6% from 5.98% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said on Thursday. A year ago, the average rate stood at 6.63%, AP reported.The modest uptick breaks a three-week slide in borrowing costs, with mortgage rates having hovered close to the 6% mark for most of this year. Last week’s average had marked the first time the rate dipped below 6% since September 2022, reaching its lowest level in nearly three and a half years.Mortgage rates are influenced by several factors, including the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate policy, investor expectations about inflation and economic growth, and movements in the bond market.They typically track the direction of the 10-year US Treasury yield, which lenders use as a benchmark for pricing home loans.The 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.14% at midday Thursday, up from around 4% a week earlier.Treasury yields have moved higher in recent days as rising oil prices added fresh inflation concerns, potentially complicating the Federal Reserve’s plans to cut interest rates.
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