Administration rolls back fuel-economy rules to 34.5 mpg
Saudi Arabia resumed exporting oil through its East-West pipeline after repairing damage caused by drone strikes earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said, restoring a crucial route around the Strait of Hormuz and dealing a blow to Iran. The Wall Street Journal’s Summer Said and Georgi Kantchev reported the pipeline stretches 750 miles across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea Port of Yanbu and serves as a critical workaround for curtailed tanker traffic through the strait, and that drone strikes blamed on Iran-backed forces in Iraq damaged the line on Sept. 10. Before the strikes, analysts estimate, roughly 4 million barrels a day — about 4 percent of global supply — were flowing through the pipeline.
The kingdom has also figured out how to get more oil past Iran in the Strait of Hormuz. Loadings at Saudi Arabia’s Gulf port at Ras Tanura recently surged to around 6.5 million barrels a day from 1.5 million barrels a day in early September, ship tracker Kpler said. The reporting appears in the Sept. 29 edition of the WSJ Logistics Report, edited by Mark R. Long.
In separate reporting in the same newsletter, the WSJ’s Sharon Terlep wrote that the Trump administration dialed back rules requiring automakers to build cleaner, more fuel-efficient cars. The federal government will now require an average of 34.5 miles a gallon for vehicles by model year 2031, down from the 50.4 miles a gallon standard set by the Biden administration. The changes come as America’s drivers are squeezed by high gasoline costs and soaring new-car prices, which now top $50,000 on average. Administration officials said the changes will drive down the average cost of a new vehicle by easing costly engineering requirements on automakers; critics said those savings are overblown and will be quickly eclipsed by higher fuel costs.
The newsletter also covered an announcement made the previous day. President Trump and executives from Mesabi Metallics unveiled a plan to build a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa, the WSJ’s Bob Tita and Alex Leary wrote. Mesabi, a part of Indian conglomerate Essar Group, recently opened the first iron-ore mine in Minnesota in 50 years. Steelmaking at the Iowa plant could begin in 2030, according to a White House official, who said it could support more than 1,700 jobs.
The proposed mill would be one of the largest in the U.S., with an initial annual production capacity of 7.5 million tons. Later additions could increase the plant’s capacity to about 10 million tons a year. The company said the plant would be in eastern Iowa and would transport iron ore from its mine to the steel mill by railroad. Mesabi expects to build plants at the site to process the ore for use in electric arc furnaces with scrap steel to make new steel.
“We will have a very cost competitive product that supports the scale of the investment announced today. Mesabi Metallics controls its own high-quality iron ore,” said Rewant Ruia, chairman of Mesabi Metallics.
The newsletter also referenced items on a list of U.S. exports to China recommended for a lower tariff rate, according to documents released by the Trump administration.