The Alliance signed on to a comment letter led by the Sierra Club to the Environmental Protection Agency in response to the agency’s proposal to gut federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and trucks.
“We urge the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposal and preserve the current common-sense vehicle emissions standards. The proposal, which eviscerates life-saving pollution reduction measures, jeopardizes the wellbeing of Americans, especially children and the elderly, and should be rejected outright.
The proposal would scrap all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and erase the endangerment finding on climate emissions. EPA finalized the endangerment finding in 2009 based on overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrating that GHG pollution in the atmosphere exacerbates the impacts of climate change on our health and environment. The evidence has only grown stronger and more compelling over the past 16 years.
EPA’s shameful proposal signals that the agency has abandoned its fundamental mission to protect human health and safeguard the environment. The Trump administration is giving Big Oil and other polluting interests carte blanche to burden communities with dirtier air and climate chaos.”
“The EPA has proposed getting rid of all greenhouse gas regulations on cars and trucks, and eliminating the 2009 endangerment finding that allowed climate-warming emissions to be regulated in the first place,” reports Politico’s E&E News. “The rollback is a key part of President Donald Trump’s plan to dismantle former President Joe Biden’s law and regulations that promoted electric vehicles and aimed to cut pollution from cars and trucks. Transportation accounts for 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and giving up on regulations would be a step backward at a time when the country is reeling from wildfires, storms and other effects of climate change, the groups argued.”
This national campaign was led by the Sierra Club. The local branch of the Sierra Club, Minnesota’s North Star Chapter, is a member of The Alliance.
Local action
Minnesota’s Coalition for Clean Transportation also submitted a public comment, Opposing Reconsideration of 2009 Endangerment Finding and Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Standards, stating:
“rolling back vehicle pollution standards will damage our state economy by increasing transportation costs for Minnesotans through decreased access to more fuel-efficient vehicles, while also harming our health – particularly the health of the most vulnerable amongst us – and hampering the ability of our state to achieve its climate goals, all at a time of rising costs and fewer social safety nets due to actions of the current federal administration and lawmakers.”
The Coalition for Clean Transportation works to eliminate Minnesota’s transportation-related climate emissions through the increased adoption and availability of sustainable and equitable electrification options, centering BIPOC and under-resourced communities who disproportionately bear the impact of climate change, air pollution, and experience high rates of mobility injustice.
Learn more about The Alliance’s work with the Coalition for Clean Transportation.
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