We applaud the 18 states, led by California, that today sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to preserve the nation’s clean car standards. These states, representing approximately 43 percent of the U.S. automobile market and approximately 140 million people, are standing up for all Americans’ need to breathe clean air and save money at the gas pump.
Despite the fact that the nation’s clean car standards have been delivering gas savings and healthier air, EPA Administrator Pruitt wants to weaken them, which will mean more pollution spewing out of tailpipes. Pruitt, in his eagerness to pander to the fossil fuel lobbies that have generously funded him, ignores the factual record showing that the standards are working and feasible.
California is the place where scientists first identified the primary role that vehicles play in causing smog, and our state’s smart, effective car standards have helped tens of millions of our residents to breathe easier. The Coalition for Clean Air was one of the original sponsors of the California clean cars law (AB 1493, 2002, by Assemblymember Fran Pavley), which ordered the first-ever limitations on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles. That law led directly to California’s car standards being adopted nationwide during the Obama Administration. USEPA had found that the rules could be met – or even exceeded – but that science-based determination has now been overturned by the reckless and corrupt Trump-Pruitt regime. So the multi-state lawsuit is a timely and appropriate action to protect the sensible and effective standards that safeguard our air and climate.
