Share Comment: Keep Clean Car Standards in Place

From PennEnvironment (http://www.pennenvironment.org):

The administration has proposed far-reaching rollbacks of air pollution protections from cars and trucks. Add your name to our comments against this attack today at https://pennenvironment.webaction.org/p/dia/action4/common/public/?action_KEY=27904!

Pennsylvanians have already seen more than our fair share of smoggy skies this summer, making it unhealthy for kids, seniors, and people struggling with asthma to go outside their homes and breathe the air.

A recent report by PennEnvironment bolstered that experience, finding that cities across Pennsylvania continue to suffer through hundreds of bad air days with unhealthy levels of air pollution.

That’s why we have to stop the EPA from rolling back cleaner car standards that would cut smog-forming, climate-changing pollution from vehicles. Make your voice heard and tell them to keep these critical standards in place.

Our “Trouble in the Air” report details how frequently the air we breathe can put our health and the health of our loved ones at risk, as well as what dangers we face as a result of living in the haze:

The report found that in 2016, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh choked on elevated levels of soot and smog roughly 30% of days in the year.

Big cities aren’t the only communities at risk. Residents of York faced 128 days of unhealthy air. in 2016. Meanwhile Lancaster residents experienced 179 days of threatening air pollution, nearly half of the year.

Emissions from cars and trucks create smog, which is then worsened by higher temperatures. That smog causes a host of respiratory problems, ranging from coughing, wheezing and throat irritation to asthma, increased risk of infection, permanent damage to lung tissue, and premature death.¹

Everyone has a right to breathe clean healthy air, but our research shows that’s far from the reality we live in. That means that we need to strengthen rather than weaken protections from pollution. But dismantling these protections could mean up to 931 million tons more global warming pollution by 2035–more than the current annual emissions from the entire country of Austria.²

We can’t let the EPA ease up on standards for cleaner, more fuel efficient cars. Add your comment now to tell the EPA we’re sick of this effort to leave our air in the dust.

With your help, we can still see clearer skies ahead.

¹Elizabeth Ridlington and Christy Leavitt, “Trouble in the Air,” PennEnvironment Research & Policy Center, July 12, 2018.

²Brad Plumer, “How Big a Deal Is Trump’s Fuel Economy Rollback? For the Climate, Maybe the Biggest Yet.” The New York Times, August 3, 2018.