One of the most hated “features” on new vehicles is the nonsensical auto stop-start, which cuts off a car’s engine when it comes to a complete stop at a traffic light or stop sign, only to turn it back on again when the driver releases the brake. The brainchild of the Obama-era Environmental Protection Agency, this onerous regulation was driven by devotion to the climate change cult.

By forcing drivers to “choose” to turn off the feature every time they start their car, auto stop-start was branded as fuel-saving, cost-cutting, and environmentally friendly. In practice, it resulted in negligible savings in fuel and money. What it did do was add wear and tear to engines and annoy the heck out of drivers.

In 2012, when the EPA adopted the tax-incentive-promoted policy, less than 1% of new car models included the feature. By 2024, that ballooned to 58% of new gas-powered cars. The growth in this tech’s adoption was matched only by the growth in drivers’ irritation.

Indeed, it has created a habit among drivers to immediately turn off the auto start-stop feature as soon as they start the car.

If, at the very beginning, auto stop-start had been offered as an option that drivers could permanently enable or disable, rather than being forced to override every time they started their vehicles, it would not be such a hated “feature.” It’s the loss of actual choice that rubs so many drivers the wrong way. Turning on the car is a constant reminder of unelected government bureaucrats imposing their ideological rules on the public, which is directly at odds with the American spirit of individual liberty.

Under Donald Trump, the federal credit incentive for auto stop-start will finally be eliminated, as the EPA has repealed the Obama-era justification for regulating greenhouse gases as pollutants.

“As part of the BIGGEST DEREGULATORY ACTION IN US HISTORY,” announced EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin on Monday, “the Trump EPA ELIMINATED all off-cycle credits that incentivized installation of the almost UNIVERSALLY DESPISED start/stop feature in vehicles. There will be no more climate participation trophies to manufacturers for making your vehicle die at every red light and stop sign!”

The regulation of greenhouse gases was a dubious expansion of the EPA’s directive to regulate air pollution. Carbon dioxide is not a pollutant. It is a naturally occurring gas upon which Earth depends. There would be neither plants nor life on our planet if it weren’t for CO₂.

The abuse of the Obama administration’s regulatory state against American Liberty is greater than most realize. The auto stop-start feature serves as an easily identifiable example of something that would never have become an issue if it had been simply offered as a choice rather than forced upon drivers.

But that seemingly slight distinction makes all the difference. As noted above, it’s the difference between Liberty and authoritarianism. Instead of trusting the American people to make their own choices based on their desires and determined needs, Washington bureaucrats took it upon themselves to dictate those choices, effectively communicating to the American people that they did not trust them to live free.

Thankfully, this absurd and annoying element of the regulatory state has been eliminated.

To celebrate, the White House recently posted a video on X featuring a beautiful woman in a sports car zooming past a couple of paunchy blue-hairs in a Prius sitting at a stoplight, with the caption, “Keeping cool while Making America Hot Again. Auto stop-start is officially dead.”

Indeed, many drivers will celebrate this development, hoping it marks the end of a highly annoying “feature” that should never have been imposed upon the public in the first place.

Keeping cool while Making America Hot Again. 🏁

Auto start-stop is officially dead. pic.twitter.com/9th5fq6wwF

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) February 13, 2026