The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has sent draft proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that would have EPA reconsider its responsibility to limit health-harming global warming pollution, as well as likely repeal specific regulations limiting those emissions from cars and trucks. This follows the agency’s proposed repeal of the power plant carbon standards announced earlier this month.
Below is a statement by Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) President Gretchen Goldman:
“Even as dangerous climate impacts, such as the heatwave 160 million people across the nation endured last week, take a mounting toll, the Trump administration is hell-bent on lying about the reality of climate change. Administrator Zeldin has already signaled his intentions to undermine the science-based Endangerment Finding so as to evade responsibility to set robust EPA climate safeguards. But the facts are clear: Heat-trapping emissions from oil, coal and gas are fueling dangerous and costly climate impacts and people across the country need policymakers to take action to limit harms instead of boosting the profits of fossil fuel companies.”
Below is a statement by UCS Clean Transportation Director Steven Higashide:
“Rescinding the EPA’s vehicle rules would harm public health and the environment. Transportation emits more heat-trapping emissions than any other sector of the U.S. economy. By rescinding these safeguards, the White House would be taking away one of the most powerful tools we have to mitigate vehicle pollution and the ever-more-present harms of climate change and air pollution. Revoking the vehicle rules would increase global warming emissions by billions of tons and expose people to pollutants that cause heart attacks, respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses, asthma, and premature death.”