From the Union of Concerned Scientists (http://www.ucsusa.org):
Auto industry lobbyists have been using every trick in the book to weaken federal vehicle efficiency standards, and this time they’re using their connections in Congress.
Senator Roy Blunt (R-Missouri) and Representative Fred Upton (R-Michigan) have introduced bills that would undermine the standards by giving auto manufacturers a bunch of free credits that they can use to make cars less efficient in the future.
This Sunday is the five-year anniversary of these standards. That’s five years of creating American jobs, cutting global warming pollution, and saving consumers more than $47 billion at the pump. We’re already fending off attacks from the Trump administration at the request of the automakers. Now the industry is also asking Congress to do its dirty work.
The bills put automakers on a path to make new vehicles in 2025 an average of 8-10 miles per gallon less efficient than they would otherwise have to be. This industry handout will cost us 350 million barrels of oil, 155 million metric tons of global warming emissions, and $34 billion in fuel costs.
We can’t sit by while automakers game the system. Call your legislators today and remind them that they work for you, not auto industry lobbyists.
These companies are paying lobbyists to weaken regulations instead of paying engineers to build the technology that makes these standards so achievable. Carmakers have easily met and exceeded fuel efficiency standards for years; they even helped write the standards in the first place! Now they’re writing the very legislation that will roll them back.
We need to make sure they don’t break their promise to the American people. Tell Congress not to let carmakers off the hook.
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