From the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org):
The administration has moved forward on scrapping the rules on clean car standards after 2020. These standards were one of our biggest victories of recent years, thanks in part to the tens of thousands of UCS supporters like you who helped fight for them!
The standards are currently reducing oil consumption, benefiting public health, cutting global warming pollution, creating jobs, and saving consumers billions at the pump. UCS has joined a lawsuit, with our allies, to stop the administration from messing with these clean car standards—but we still need your help in fighting back!
Tell the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation that you will not stand for this rollback of our nation’s strongest climate policy at https://secure.ucsusa.org/onlineactions/-IA8zQ4v9kGbMV2b8RteDQ2.
The administration is also attacking states’ long-standing authority to set or opt into stronger standards. California was one of the first places in the country to encounter the serious effects of automotive pollution, and the first state to do something about it. Nearly 50 years ago, Congress recognized the importance of allowing California to set clean air standards that can be stronger than the federal government’s, and gave other states the option to choose to opt into stronger standards as well. By revoking states’ rights to opt into stronger standards, the administration is not only attacking state leadership on adopting good policy, but also directly attacking the states’ ability to fight climate change.
The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states, almost all of which have adopted California’s stricter standards, have recently been working in a coordinated effort to reduce transportation pollution, the largest contributor of climate emissions in the region. Without maintaining state authority to opt in for stronger clean car standards, progress in the Northeast will be halted. To meet our emissions reduction goals, we must defend state authority to opt into stronger clean car standards, so states can lead the way on cutting transportation pollution.
Tell the administration that this attack on state leadership is moving this country backwards.
To be clear, the administration didn’t just randomly choose this rule to scrap. Automaker lobbyists and their trade groups asked them to weaken the rules by creating new loopholes. The administration listened to the automakers demands; relied on bogus, industry-funded data; and went above and beyond to propose eradicating the standards. We’ve seen this before with this administration: industry barks, and the administration throws them a giant bone—all at the expense of the public.
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