Climate Change Update: States Sue EPA over Fuel Economy Retreat
States are fighting back against the Trump Administration’s latest big move to increase air pollution and accelerate climate change.
Last week, 17 states and the District of Columbia filed suit in federal court to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) decision to retreat from stronger auto fuel efficiency standards. The Trump EPA’s attempted gift to the oil industry is based on bad politics and greed, not sound science, and the states’ lawsuit challenges the decision as “arbitrary and capricious.”
The Obama EPA standards which the current administration wants to gut would avert 6 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles sold between 2012 and 2025. In the absence of those rules, the transportation sector will continue its climb as the leading source of American greenhouse gas emissions. Even some automakers, including Ford and Honda, have warned against rolling those standards back. “The Trump Administration’s plan would rob Americans at the gas pump and risk our children’s health by polluting the air we breathe,” said California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
