U.S. moves target auto industry

This is so much more than a parting shot.

With a week to go before Donald Trump becomes president, the Obama administration has unleashed a final, multiprong effort on enforcement and regulation in the automotive industry, with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles now at the fore.

On Friday alone, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rejected automakers' bid to weaken fuel-efficiency standards, news broke that federal authorities had opened a criminal investigation into Fiat Chrysler over its handling of emissions in 104,000 SUVs and pickup trucks, and embattled supplier Takata Corp. agreed to plead guilty and pay $1 billion to settle a U.S. probe into its exploding airbags linked to at least 17 deaths worldwide.

Together the developments - along with this week's $4.3 billion in fines and penalties against Volkswagen for its diesel-emissions cheating and the indictment of three Takata executives - mark one of the most aggressive industry-related moves since the Obama administration helped General Motors Co. and the former Chrysler through bankruptcy in 2009.

The question now is how Trump, who campaigned on promises to revive the fossil-fuel industry and roll back environmental regulation, will respond.

The administration's biggest move was EPA's jumping several months ahead of schedule to affirm President Obama's mandate requiring automakers to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by boosting their fleetwide fuel economy to an average of 50.8 miles per gallon by 2025, from 35.3 mpg now.

"Obama is making it more difficult and more politically costly for the new administration to unwind the regulations," said Brian Johnson, a Barclays analyst in Chicago.

For Trump to do this, he would have to restart the process that produced the rules in the first place. Dave Cooke, senior vehicles analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, says such a move would include reaching a fresh conclusion that the 2025 standards needed to be changed and then a lengthy rule-making to do so.

"This is not a hasty decision," Cooke said. "It's based on years of data and it's a lot of work and effort to overturn."

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Detroit announced the Takata deal Friday, hours after it unsealed a six-count grand jury indictment against three former Takata executives who are accused of carrying out the scheme by falsifying and altering test reports that showed the inflators could rupture.

Takata inflators can explode with too much force, spewing shrapnel into drivers and passengers. At least 11 people have been killed in the U.S. and 16 worldwide because of the defect. More than 180 have been injured. The problem touched off the largest automotive recall in U.S. history covering 42 million vehicles and 69 million inflators. It will take years for the recalls to be completed.

Under the deal, Takata will pay a $25 million criminal fine, $125 million to individuals injured by the air bags and $850 million to automakers that purchased the inflators.