October 26, 2018: On Friday, October 26, the Sierra Club and its coalition partners submitted extensive legal and technical comments on the Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of the clean car standards. ELP led this effort for the Sierra Club. EPA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) proposed rollback would flatline the standards as of 2020. By the administration’s own analysis, this proposal would kill as many as 60,000 jobs, cost consumers an average of $3600 at the pump, and increase highway deaths. The agencies have also proposed to take away the ability of California and 13 other states to set their own strong standards to protect their air and climate.
The current car standards, agreed to under the Obama Administration, were part of a deal between automakers, NHTSA, EPA, and the California Air Resources Board, with buy-in from labor unions and environmental groups. The current standards limit carbon pollution by 6 billion tons, save consumers $1.7 trillion dollars in fuel costs, and reduce oil consumption by up to 4 million barrels every day. The rule was one of the strongest and most important policies put in place in the U.S. to cut carbon pollution.
Read the official Sierra Club press release here.