U.S. Air Force photo/Don Branum
In March 2017, President Trump held a high-profile event in Ypsilanti, Michigan to announce that his administration was re-opening the mid-term evaluation of America’s Clean Car Standards. He was joined at the event by the CEO’s of General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, and Ford among others.
His action that day kicked-off a process that culminated in today’s release of a proposal that would eviscerate those successful standards.
The Trump administration’s attack on the Clean Car Standards threatens our health and environment, will raise costs on American families, is at odds with the technical progress the industry is making to reduce vehicle pollution, contains attacks on state-authority that are flatly illegal, undermines our safety, and is based on a deeply flawed and biased analysis.
The attack also goes against the purported rationale the President gave in March 2017.
President Trump wanted us to believe that this action was all about jobs. He mentioned “jobs” 14 times in his speech, noting:
“If the standards threatened auto jobs, then commonsense changes could have and should have been made.”
He also said:
“We are going to ensure that any regulations we have protect and defend your jobs.”
The odd thing is that the Trump administration’s own analysis finds that its proposal is a job loser.
That’s right: the administration’s own assessment found that its proposal would cost at least 60,000 jobs (Table VII-5; page 784 and 785).
This post was written by EDF consultant Chester France, who served as a Senior Executive at EPA and led the development of vehicle standards at the agency
The latest rumblings indicate the Trump administration is poised to advance a proposal that would dramatically roll back America’s