Americans Demand Trump Administration Maintain Clean Car Standards

Washington, DC -- Today, the Sierra Club, along with environmental and consumer advocacy organizations and millions of Americans, submitted extensive comments on the Trump Administration’s proposed rollback of the clean car standards. 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. A recent poll found that nearly 7 in 10 American voters want the existing standards to remain in place.

Yet in August, under pressure from automakers and corporate lobbyists, Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King announced the proposed rollback, which 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 rule, as proposed, would also take away the ability of California and 13 other states to set their own strong standards to protect their air and climate.

While Americans demand the standards be protected, Wheeler is attacking the California Air Resources Board for following through on its promise to not give in to the Trump administration’s radical and widely opposed rollback.

Last month, hundreds of people attended hearings in Fresno, Dearborn, and Pittsburgh to urge the Trump administration to keep the current standards in place. Hundreds of thousands more have submitted comments online in favor of the pre-rollback rules.

In response, Sierra Club Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding released the following statement:

“While the Trump administration may have dubbed its rollback ‘SAFE,’ in reality, it is anything but. While the world’s leading scientists deliver urgent warnings to take significant and immediate action on climate, the Trump administration is ignoring the robust evidence underlying the existing standards in favor of fabricated facts and flawed models in a desperate bid to please the auto industry and corporate polluters. Andrew Wheeler’s attempt at impersonating Trump as he attacks those refusing to cower to his demands doesn’t change a thing. EPA and NHTSA must protect the health and safety of the American people rather than bow to the whims of corporate polluters -- and the Sierra Club and the people will continue fighting until that happens.”