WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee, called the Trump administration’s latest rollback of auto emission standards an unnecessary assault on public health. The second part of the rule, finalized jointly today by the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, will require fuel economy standards to be raised by just 1.5% per year, rather than the 5% under the Obama administration’s 2012 rule. The new, weaker standard would lead to nearly a billion more tons of carbon dioxide pollution and the consumption of about 80 billion more gallons of gasoline over the lifetime of the vehicles built during the terms of the rule, costing consumers more frequent trips to the gas pump.

“As our nation grapples with a serious public health crisis, the Trump Administration reverts to its fixation on undoing regulations that were meant to protect the health of American consumers and the public at large. The very moment we are battling a disease with serious respiratory complications, the president and his team find it urgent to complete the rollback of emissions standards for motor vehicles, stymying American innovation and competitiveness, adding pollution to our air, and piling on the health burdens of climate change for years to come. No amount of spin can make this a good outcome for the health of America.”

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