Sierra Club Sues Trump Administration Over Attack on the Clean Car Standards, Biggest Attack on Climate Action Yet

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Sierra Club and Earthjustice, together with a broad coalition of health and environmental groups, filed lawsuits against former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), for their rollback of the clean car standards, formally known as the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas standards for light duty vehicles.

Preliminary analysis indicates that the rollback would increase fuel costs by more than $240 billion; result in 18,555 premature deaths; produce 1.5 billion metric tons of climate pollution; and contribute to one million lost work days.

The standards are the nation’s most influential and ambitious rules to tackle climate change; they also save consumers money and are critical to reducing dangerous air pollution.

Joanne Spalding, the Sierra Club’s Chief Climate Counsel, released the following statement:

"The Trump Administration's reversal of climate-protecting clean car standards is one of their most reckless and destructive actions yet; it is also one of the sloppiest regulatory actions to date, full of mathematical and logical errors, according to the administration’s own economists. This flawed rule --  which will increase pollution, endanger public health, cut auto jobs, and further burden American families with higher fueling costs -- will not hold up in court, just like the vast majority of the Trump Administration’s unjustified actions.

“The Sierra Club has fought for strong clean car standards for decades, and today's filing is the latest in years of advocacy for climate action that protects people and the planet. We will keep fighting well after this administration becomes a blip in the rearview mirror.”