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Duffy Discusses the CAFE Standards Reset Proposal on CNBC's Squawk Box, Dec. 4, 2025

December 4, 2025 · US Department of Transportation · 0:11:48

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy joined Phil LeBeau on CNBC’s Squawk Box to discuss the department’s new proposal to reset the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards, holiday air travel, and autonomous vehicles, according to the Department of Transportation’s December 4, 2025 upload of the appearance. In the interview, the proposal was discussed as bringing the standard to about 34–35 miles per gallon against a prior-administration trajectory put at 51 miles per gallon by 2031, as the figures were stated on air.

Duffy argued the prior standard was set by counting electric vehicles and hybrids in a calculation the law reserves for combustion engines, producing a target no combustion engine could meet; the reset, he said, follows the law and phases in slow, gradual efficiency increases instead. He cited the estimate discussed in the interview of about $109 billion in automaker savings, roughly $1,000 per car, and said a competitive market would pass savings to consumers — newer cars being safer cars, as he put the safety case. He also pointed to the One Big Beautiful Bill’s interest write-off for car loans and to fuel prices he noted were under a $3 national average, as the figures were discussed on air. Asked about regulatory whiplash for automakers across administrations, he said his job is to follow what the law says, as he stated it.

Why it matters

The Squawk Box appearance is the public sales pitch for the CAFE reset proposal the day after its announcement — the same policy Duffy then carried to the Ford, Stellantis, and Detroit Auto Show stops in January 2026, paged separately on this site. It fixes the proposal’s stated numbers — the reset level, the savings estimate, and the per-car figure — at the moment they entered the public debate.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the CAFE standards reset proposal, discussed December 4, 2025, as a move to about 34–35 mpg with an estimated $109 billion in automaker savings. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “U.S. Transportation Secretary Duffy on CNBC’s Squawk Box on December 4, 2025” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as stated in the interview.