President Donald Trump‘s administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin, announced on Monday that the EPA is going to “fix” the start/stop technology in automobiles.
Zeldin, a former GOP Congressman from New York, wrote on X: “Start-stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”
Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy. EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it. pic.twitter.com/zFhijMyHDe
— Lee Zeldin (@epaleezeldin) May 12, 2025
Many MAGA supporters agree with Zeldin and are sharing their frustration and “hatred” of the technology. Addressing the toggle feature that ostensibly allows drivers to disable the tech if they don’t want to use it, one commenter wrote: “No matter how many times you turn it off, it automatically re-enables itself every time you park the car…You can’t stop it from constantly re-enabling itself, which is the exact opposite of the driver being able to control it.”
[NOTE: A Ford Motors page on the Start/Stop tech confirms that it can be shut off temporarily, but will be re-enabled when the car is restarted.]
On the other side of the issue, which seems to draw about the same divide in the electorate as the gas stoves kerfuffle, commenters in favor report that they can turn the feature off but that they enjoy the extra miles per gallon. As one replied: “Yes, I can shut it off in my Forester, but I have no issues with it being on & it results in almost 30 mpg in my vehicle.”
And then there are those who don’t use the technology but still hate it. As one replied: “My car doesn’t do that, but I see it on the streets and it’s super annoying!”
Progressive political pundit Richard Angwin replied on X to Zeldin’s “climate participation trophy” mockery and the seemingly rhetorical question “what real benefit has this added to climate issues?”
Angwin brought some data to the fight, writing: “Start/stop tech saves fuel, AAA found up to 7% mpg gains, cutting CO2 and costs ($179/year at 20 mpg, $3.65/gal). Zeldin’s rollback ignores real benefits for drivers and the planet, prioritizing industry over efficiency. Data-driven policy should win.”
Backing Angwin’s view, Consumer Reports published an article in 2024 that revealed “depending on driving conditions, the fuel economy improvements of the start/stop function were between 7.27 and 26.4 percent in fuel use during testing, according to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).”
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