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Duffy, Greer, and Zeldin Speak with the Press at the Detroit Auto Show, Jan. 18, 2026

January 18, 2026 · US Department of Transportation · 0:21:18

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

What happened

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy spoke with the press at the Detroit Auto Show on day two of the administration’s “Freedom Means Affordable Cars” swing, alongside U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, in the Department of Transportation’s January 18, 2026 upload. Duffy said the three officials had been working at President Trump’s direction on policies to make cars more affordable and bring manufacturing back to America. For the Transportation Department, he said, that meant restructuring the CAFE fuel-economy standards — which he said the prior administration had raised to almost 60 miles per gallon, a level he said no combustion engine can meet — down to 35 miles per gallon, as he stated the figures. Greer addressed the trade side of the agenda and Zeldin the EPA’s proposed reconsideration of the 2009 endangerment finding and the vehicle greenhouse-gas standards that followed from it, as they stated their parts at the event.

Why it matters

The Detroit appearance is the affordable-cars agenda presented as a three-agency package — fuel-economy rules at DOT, trade at USTR, emissions rules at EPA — delivered at the industry’s home show after plant visits in Ohio and Illinois earlier in the same swing, which this chronicle pages separately. The CAFE restructuring Duffy states here, from almost 60 to 35 miles per gallon, is the transportation piece of the administration’s vehicle-affordability claim.

Scoreboard watch

Scoreboard candidate: the CAFE standards restructuring — from almost 60 mpg to 35 mpg — as stated by Secretary Duffy on January 18, 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 Detroit Auto Show” (official upload, embedded above). Remarks and figures as delivered by the officials at the event.