Oil industry raises a billion for the campaign, collects the fuel rule rollback in two installments

…(cont) Two days after that, on September 26th, a Saturday, the President said he had approved new fuel economy standards for passenger cars and eliminated the electric vehicle mandate written under his predecessor. The 2024 mandate had set pollution limits automakers could not meet without shifting more of their fleets to electric. The new standards remove that pressure. The New York Times reported the same day that the change kills the federal government's effort to speed that transition.

By September 28th and 29th, The Hill and the Times had the paperwork: the administration had sharply scaled back mileage rules for the vehicles most Americans drive, 29 days after doing the same for the trucks that move their groceries. One industry, two rollbacks, the smaller one first and quieter, the larger one finalized on a weekend and still not accompanied by a number of its own. The Times noted, in the same dispatch, that Republicans are planning a major ad blitz. No line item yet says what that costs, either.

The billion-dollar figure belongs to 2024, to the pledge, not to either rule. Senate Democrats priced the deal; the industry cashed the checks; two agencies wrote the rules that make the deal real. Neither agency has filed what these two rules are worth on their own. That's the arithmetic still missing, hon — not whether the industry got paid, just how much of the bill lands on gas, and how much on air.