Separately, Consumer Reports on Jan. 22 sent a petition signed by 75,000 people urging those carmakers to drop their support. And on the sidelines of an annual auto industry show in Washington, religious leaders were scheduled to pray for automakers, asking that they consider the “moral implications” of the administration’s fuel standards policy, according to a press release from groups organizing the opposition.

Carper based his arguments on a copy of the draft final rule he said his office obtained from a person outside the government. His letter was previously reported by The Washington Post.

The rule as submitted to the White House would impose net costs rather than the benefits claimed in the 2018 proposal with net costs of $34.4 billion to $41.3 billion over the lifetime of vehicles produced under the Trump standards, which “would seem to fly in the face of rational rulemaking,” Carper wrote.

By contrast, the Trump administration has argued that easing mileage standards would reduce vehicle prices and make it easier for consumers to replace older, less efficient cars with new one that are more efficient and safer.

The draft final rule finds that a 1.5% per year increase in fleet mileage requirements through 2026 would cut vehicle prices by roughly $1,000 but would also result in consumers spending more than $1,400 on additional fuel, Carper said.

While the earlier 2018 proposal projected that thousands of highway fatalities would be eliminated, the draft final rule projected just 471 lives would be saved under the weaker standards through 2029, Carper wrote.

“I urge you to require EPA and DOT to abandon these efforts entirely,” or “at a minimum” require the agencies to make wholesale revisions to the rule before it is finalized, Carper wrote.

The draft “utterly fails to provide any demonstrable safety, environmental or economic benefit to consumers or the country,” Carper said.

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