Trump Proposes to Gut Clean Vehicle Standards and Wipe Out Climate Science

Today, the Trump administration announced it is rolling back the Environmental Protection Agency’s clean vehicle standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles.

The obliteration of the clean vehicle standards is part of Trump’s frontal attack on the U.S. government’s ability to act on climate—the administration is also attempting to eliminate the 2009 “endangerment finding,” (EF) a bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger human lives. See the Sierra Club’s statement on the EF here.

The endangerment finding requires the federal government to regulate climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. Eliminating it would gut key tools Congress gave EPA to address the immense harm wrought by the climate crisis and would undo regulations of industrial sources of greenhouse gas emissions like vehicles or power plants.

The transportation sector accounts for 28 percent of greenhouse gas emissions—more than any other sector in the US. The clean vehicle standards continue EPA’s decades-long effort under the Clean Air Act to set standards that successfully reduce vehicle pollution, improve public health and prevent the worst of the climate crisis. For this latest round of final standards, the EPA engaged in a years-long, multi-stakeholder, comprehensive rulemaking process that engaged industry and civil society alike and would collectively avoid over 8 billion tons of carbon emissions.

In response to the announcement, Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All Director Katherine García released the following statement:

“Vehicle pollution kills, and Donald Trump’s catastrophic rollback of the vehicle standards will eviscerate one of our most effective tools to tackle the nation’s top polluting industry. Trump’s short-sighted, anti-regulatory agenda will deny Americans the option to choose cleaner vehicles over inefficient gas guzzlers. In one fell swoop just months into office, Trump’s pro-polluter administration is trying to destroy the United States’s ability to fight climate change and protect our health and well-being while making us less globally competitive.

“Our federal clean vehicle standards protect American families by cutting down on toxic air pollutants and climate-disrupting emissions. Strong standards also protect our wallets by ensuring manufacturers produce cleaner, more fuel efficient cars that are cheaper to fuel and own long-term.

"These standards are the product of years of public engagement, in which a broad coalition—including thousands of Sierra Club members and supporters—advocated for the strongest possible protections. Time and time again, Trump has proposed irrational policies that fundamentally hurt Americans and the planet. And, once again, the Sierra Club will fight this senseless attack tooth and nail.”