EPA Plans To Keep Clean Car Standards Strong

WASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it will keep in place the existing carbon pollution standards for automobile model years 2022 to 2025.  

The following is a statement by Luke Tonachel, director of the Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project at the Natural Resources Defense Council:

“These common-sense standards are doing exactly what they were designed to do.  They’re protecting our health and climate from dangerous pollution, saving billions of gallons of fuel, and saving car owners an average of nearly $4000 over the life of the vehicle.  Automakers have the technology to meet the standards through 2025, according to a thorough review by EPA, the Department of Transportation and the California Air Resources Board.  So there’s no evidence we should slow down.  Loosening standards would only cost consumers more, increase our dependence on oil and put Americans at greater risk from a changing climate.”

A progress report by EPA and two other agencies in July confirmed that automakers are on track to meet the standards at a reasonable cost.

For more on clean car standards:

Draft Technical Assessment Report (July 2016)
Blog by NRDC’s Luke Tonachel on the Technical Assessment Report
Blog by NRDC’s Roland Hwang on the Technical Assessment Report

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The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 2 million members and online activists. Since 1970, our lawyers, scientists, and other environmental specialists have worked to protect the world's natural resources, public health, and the environment. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, and Beijing. Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.