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Automakers are still dealing with whiplash from the delay, imposition and then partial rollback of tariffs on Canada and Mexico. And starting today, they also face higher tariffs on steel and aluminum — raw materials that the auto industry consumes in vast quantities.
President Trump imposed tariffs on the two metals during his first administration. But now he's expanding them. This time, the 25% tariff on steel applies without exceptions for any countries or industries that rely on the metal, and the tariff on aluminum is rising from 10% to 25%. Trump said in a proclamation that the tariffs are justified on national security grounds, although he has also said in remarks they will promote U.S. jobs and make U.S. companies more profitable.
The expanded tariffs on steel and aluminum "place U.S. manufacturers at a tremendous disadvantage—including those who do not import these raw materials," the Coalition of American Metal Manufacturers and Users said in a statement. The coalition represents suppliers that use metals as an input, making wires, tools, machines and parts for cars, construction, consumer goods, electronics and other industries. "The reality is that the U.S. does not produce enough steel or aluminum to meet domestic demand, and new production facilities cannot be built instantly."
Ford CEO Jim Farley told investors last week that even though Ford gets most of its metal from within the U.S., it will still feel the effects of the tariffs. "Our suppliers have international sources for aluminum and steel. So that price will come through," he said. "We'll have to deal with it."
Meanwhile, Trump's tariffs on Canada and Mexico are in place, but have been suspended until early April for most — but not all — cars and car parts. If those tariffs are reimposed for a significant period of time, it could further drive automaking costs up further — even in the U.S. That's because the North American supply chain is highly integrated, and auto parts may cross the U.S. border several times.
And from The New York Times:Donald Trump’s administration is to reconsider the official finding that greenhouse gases are harmful to public health, a move that threatens to rip apart the foundation of the US’s climate laws, amid a stunning barrage of actions to weaken or repeal a host of pollution limits upon power plants, cars and waterways.
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an extraordinary cavalcade of pollution rule rollbacks on Wednesday, led by the announcement it would potentially scrap a landmark 2009 finding by the US government that planet-heating gases, such carbon dioxide, pose a threat to human health.
The so-called endangerment finding, which followed a supreme court ruling that the EPA could regulate greenhouse gases, provides the underpinning for all rules aimed at cutting the pollution that scientists have unequivocally found is worsening the climate crisis.
Despite the enormous and growing body of evidence of devastation caused by rising emissions, including trillions of dollars in economic costs, Trump has called the climate crisis a “hoax” and dismissed those concerned by its worsening impacts as “climate lunatics”.
Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said the agency would reconsider the endangerment finding due to concerns that it had spawned “an agenda that throttles our industries, our mobility, and our consumer choice while benefiting adversaries overseas”.
Environmentalists reacted with horror to the announcement and vowed to defend the overwhelming findings of science and the US’s ability to address the climate crisis through the courts, which regularly struck down Trump’s rollbacks in his first term. “The Trump administration’s ignorance is trumped only by its malice toward the planet,” said Jason Rylander, legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
“Come hell or high water, raging fires and deadly heatwaves, Trump and his cronies are bent on putting polluter profits ahead of people’s lives. This move won’t stand up in court. We’re going to fight it every step of the way.”
The EPA issued 31 announcements within just a few hours that take aim at almost every major environmental rule designed to protect Americans’ clean air and water, as well as a livable climate.
The EPA will also revisit pollution standards for cars and trucks, which Zeldin said had imposed a “crushing regulatory regime” upon auto companies that are now shifting towards electric vehicles, consider weakening rules limiting sooty air pollution that’s linked to an array of health problems, potentially axe requirements that power plants not befoul waterways or dump their toxic waste and will consider further narrowing how it implements the Clean Water Act in general.
The stunning broadside of actions against pollution rules could, if upheld by the courts, reshape Americans’ environment in ways not seen since major legislation was passed in the 1970s to end an era of smoggy skies and burning rivers that became the norm following American industrialization.
Pollutants from power plants, highways and industry cause a range of heart, lung and other health problems, with greenhouse gases among this pollution driving up the global temperature and fueling catastrophic heatwaves, floods, storms and other impacts.
“Zeldin’s EPA is dragging America back to the days before the Clean Air Act, when people were dying from pollution,” said Dominique Browning, director of the Moms Clean Air Force. “This is unacceptable. And shameful. We will oppose with all our hearts to protect our children from this cruel, monstrous action.”
In a barrage of pronouncements on Wednesday the Trump administration said it would repeal dozens of the nation’s most significant environmental regulations, including limits on pollution from tailpipes and smokestacks, protections for wetlands, and the legal basis that allows it to regulate the greenhouse gases that are heating the planet.
Mr. Zeldin said the E.P.A. would unwind more than two dozen protections against air and water pollution. It would overturn limits on soot from smokestacks that have been linked to respiratory problems in humans and premature deaths as well as restrictions on emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin. It would get rid of the “good neighbor rule” that requires states to address their own pollution when it’s carried by winds into neighboring states. And it would eliminate enforcement efforts that prioritize the protection of poor and minority communities.
In addition, when the agency creates environmental policy, it would no longer consider the costs to society from wildfires, droughts, storms and other disasters that might be made worse by pollution connected to that policy, Mr. Zeldin said.
And this from The Washington Post-Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority’s leader, said this afternoon that Democrats will not provide the necessary votes to adopt the stopgap funding bill passed by House Republicans, which includes cuts to vital services and programs.
Senate rules mean that 60 votes are needed to move legislation forward, and Republicans only have 53 seats – and 52 votes, given Rand Paul’s stated opposition to to the House bill.
Here are Schumer’s remarks:
"Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort. But Republicans chose a partisan path, drafting their Continuing Resolution without any input, any input, from Congressional Democrats.
Because of that, Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR.
Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11th CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass. We should vote on that.
I hope our Republican colleagues will join us to avoid a shutdown on Friday."
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said on the Senate floor Wednesday that not enough Democrats support the Republican-led funding measure that passed the House on Tuesday. With days to go until a shutdown deadline, Democrats are seeking a bill — known as a continuing resolution, or CR — to keep the government open through April 11 while the two parties complete work on their long-stalled spending bills. “Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR,” Schumer said.
Note: Text emphasis was added to the above report.In a flurry of news releases, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency will roll back some of President Joe Biden’s most consequential climate and environmental regulations. He specifically cited rules aimed at speeding the nation’s shift to electric vehicles, slashing planet-warming emissions from power plants and safeguarding waterways from harmful pollution.
Taken together, the announcements herald a seismic shift in U.S. environmental policy, one that could ease restrictions on nearly every sector of the economy. Yet rewriting many of the rules could take the agency months or even years.
“Today is the most consequential day of deregulation in American history,” Zeldin wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. “We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.”
Zeldin confirmed in the piece that the Trump administration will repeal a scientific finding underpinning much of the federal government’s push to combat climate change. The Washington Post first reported last month that the administration will target the “endangerment finding,” which cleared the way for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act by concluding that the planet-warming gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.
Environmentalists criticized the EPA’s actions Wednesday: “Corporate polluters are celebrating today because Trump’s EPA just handed them a free pass to spew unlimited climate pollution, consequences be damned,” Charles Harper, the power sector senior policy lead at the climate advocacy group Evergreen Action, said in a statement.
Business groups cheered the moves, with coal advocates specifically praising the reconsideration of the power plant rules, which would have pushed all coal plants by 2039 to either capture their carbon dioxide emissions or shut down.
“The standard is so extreme that it’s virtually impossible to comply with,” Ernie Thrasher, CEO of the coal supplier XCoal Energy and Resources, said in an interview. “It’s the consumers who have been strangled with regulation.”
Eddie, I am concerned with your eyesight. Today, 1 dozen Kroger brand large eggs are $5.49 at the Kroger on Mockingbird Ln off of 75.Costco eggs yesterday: $14+ per dozen.
I knew egg prices were high but this is crazy!
I wasn't aware eggs became this expensive since I usually have cereal for breakfast.
Observant, the following is not directed at you. its simply an observation re the Great Egg Hysteria of 2025 gneerally....
3/11 stopped at my local Kroger this afternoon. Decided to see what the big fuss about "omigod egg prices are sooo high.." Bought 1 dozen large eggs for $4.39. That wasn't a special promotion, no coupon was used. Its simply the price staring me in the face on my store receipt.
If the merchant you patronize is price-gouging eggs, maybe do some comparison shopping? Most major cities have ethnic grocery stores (Latin, Asian). Generally ethnic grocers charge a lot less for unpackaged foods than do their American counterparts. I would think that a trip to one's local grocer might be worth it to those who are stressing about their eggs. Maybe its time to tear up the Costco membership, avoid Whole Foods, and visit the local Asian grocer? Maybe avoid the $6 coffees at Starbucks too? Costco in particular, generates a lot of (well-deserved) consumer loyalty.. perhaps they are trying to exploit that where customers will just shrug their shoulders and not blink at the prices for eggs, given all the 'static' about egg prices?
You're making me hungry. :) :) :)Eggs are not "eggs". They come in many grades and varieties. One store that we visit each week has at least six different types of eggs, varying on size, color, and feeding/living conditions of the laying chickens. The prices range from approximately $5 to $12 per dozen. This particular store happens to be in a Northern California agricultural area which has been an egg and chicken producing center for at least 100 years, so the store has local access to many types of available eggs..
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