President Donald Trump says he's doing a big favor for car buyers: getting rid of the start-stop button that have bedeviled drivers for several years.
As part of its broader rollback of U.S. fuel economy rules, the Trump administration says it is eliminating a credit for automakers that got breaks on the fuel economy compliance if they installed start-stop buttons on their vehicles that shut off engines when the cars are idling.
"You're going to get a better car, you're going to get a car that starts easier, a car that works better for a lot less money," Trump said at a White House event announcing the change.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin added in a statement that labeled the elimination of the credit for start-stop system "an added bonus" to Trump's broader emission rule rollback "the off-cycle credit for the almost universally despised start-stop feature on vehicles has been removed.”
There is nothing in the new rules that will force carmakers to quit using the start-stop feature if they still want to, but the Trump administration is removing the fuel economy that has spurred its adoption for the past decade.
