President Donald Trump told auto CEOs that environmental regulations are “out of control” and pledged to make it easier to build plants in the US as part of his push to boost American manufacturing.
Manufacturers have told Trump that cumbersome federal rules are too costly and if these rules were softened, then they could allocate capital to everything from research to modern technologies to jobs.
Trump met with Ford CEO Mark Fields, General Motors CEO Mary Barra and Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne on Tuesday and promised to remove obstacles for manufacturers and oil companies, Industry Week reports.
“We have a very big push on to have auto plants and other plants, many other plants, you’re not being singled out…to have a lot of plants from a lot of different items built in the United States,” Trump told the CEOs.
The auto executives also discussed fuel efficiency standards, trade policy and electric vehicles with the president, according to Reuters, which sources a person briefed on the meeting.
Ford’s Fields and other major automakers have called on Trump to soften the fuel efficiency rules, which they say will hurt profits by forcing automakers to build more electric vehicles than are warranted by customer demand.
After the meeting, GM’s Barra said there was a “huge opportunity” to work together with the government to “improve the environment, improve safety and improve the jobs creation.”