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Duffy, Greer, and Zeldin Speak with the Press at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant, Jan. 16, 2026

January 16, 2026 · US Department of Transportation · 0:34:46

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

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke with the press at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant after a tour of the facility, alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, in the Department of Transportation’s January 16, 2026 upload. (The upload’s description text is a copy of the department’s Alaska Airlines and Boeing announcement text; this page is grounded on the upload’s title and the remarks actually delivered at the plant.)

Duffy said the prior administration’s policy had in effect been an EV mandate that forced up the cost of gas cars, and that the CAFE fuel-economy standard — set at almost 60 miles per gallon, a level he said no combustion engine can reach — had forced car companies to pay billions in taxes or carbon credits, adding about $1,000 to the cost of a vehicle, as he stated the figures. The department’s path, he said, brings the standard down to an attainable 35 miles per gallon. He pointed to gasoline prices he put at a more-than-five-year low, last seen in 2019, and to the One Big Beautiful Bill provision allowing buyers of a new American-made vehicle to write off up to $10,000 of their loan, as he described it. Greer addressed wages and trade from the same stage, stating that average weekly wages had risen 4 percent over the past year and that trucks imported from overseas producers now pay an extra 25 percent tariff, as he stated the figures.

Why it matters

The Ford Ohio stop opens the January 2026 affordable-cars swing — Toledo the next day and the Detroit Auto Show the day after, both paged separately on this site — and it is the fullest single statement of the swing’s shared script: the CAFE reset as the Transportation Department’s contribution, tariffs as the trade contribution, and the loan-interest write-off as the congressional contribution, all presented at the plants whose workers the package is meant to benefit.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the CAFE standards restructuring — from almost 60 mpg to 35 mpg, with about $1,000 per vehicle in compliance cost — as stated by Secretary Duffy on January 16, 2026. Flagged for the scoreboard editor; no entry is published from this page.

Sources: U.S. Department of Transportation, “Secretary Duffy Speaks with the Press at the Ford Ohio Assembly Plant” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered by the officials at the event.