ELR Citation: ELR 20542
No(s). 89-1422 (D.C. Cir. Feb 19, 1992)

The court holds that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) failed to adequately address safety issues in refusing to lower the corporate average fuel economy standard for model year 1990 cars below the statutory level of 27.5 miles per gallon (mpg). Automakers and other petitioners asked the NHTSA to lower the standard because, among other things, the 27.5 mpg standard would force automakers to produce smaller, less safe cars. The NHTSA lowered the standard to 26.5 mpg for model year 1989, but decided to leave the statutory 27.5 mpg standard in place for model year 1990. The court initially holds that petitioners have standing. On the merits, the court holds that the NHTSA did not offer a reasoned explanation for its decision not to relax the 27.5 mpg standard for model year 1990. The NHTSA fudged its analysis and made conclusory assertions that its decision had no safety cost. The NHTSA failed to show that a 27.5 mpg standard would not have a constraining effect on carmakers, that carmakers would not decrease the average size of their cars below what it would have been absent the standard, that this decrease in size would not make it more difficult for consumers to drive larger cars, or that a large car is not safer than a smaller car. The court thus remands to the NHTSA for a genuine explanation of its decision.

A dissenting judge would hold that the NHTSA adequately addressed the safety issue. In deciding that the NHTSA failed to evaluate the safety consequences of its action, the majority improperly substituted a judicial balancing of the evidence for the NHTSA's own considered judgment.

Counsel for Petitioner
Sam Kazman
Competitive Enterprise Institute
611 Pennsylvania Ave. SE, Washington DC 20003
(202) 547-1010

Counsel for Respondent
Paul J. Rice, Chief Counsel
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
400 7th St. SW, Washington DC 20540
(202) 366-4000

Stuart M. Gerson, Barbara C. Biddle
Civil Division
U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC 20530
(202) 514-2000

Before: MIKVA, Chief Judge, WILLIAMS and THOMAS,^* Circuit Judges.