100+ Groups to EPA: Do Your Job & Maintain Strong Vehicle Emission Standards

September 15, 2025

Dear Administrator Zeldin:

On behalf of the 112 undersigned groups, we urge the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw its proposal and preserve the current common-sense vehicle emissions standards. The proposal, which eviscerates life-saving pollution reduction measures, jeopardizes the wellbeing of Americans, especially children and the elderly, and should be rejected outright.

The proposal would scrap all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for light-, medium-, and heavy-duty vehicles and erase the endangerment finding on climate emissions. EPA finalized the endangerment finding in 2009 based on overwhelming scientific evidence demonstrating that GHG pollution in the atmosphere exacerbates the impacts of climate change on our health and environment. The evidence has only grown stronger and more compelling over the past 16 years.

EPA’s shameful proposal signals that the agency has abandoned its fundamental mission to protect human health and safeguard the environment. The Trump administration is giving Big Oil and other polluting interests carte blanche to burden communities with dirtier air and climate chaos. 

Americans are reeling from the deadly and painful impacts of climate change across the country, including worsening air quality, wildfires, flooding, and hurricanes costing lives, devastating communities, and incurring billions of dollars in damage. Instead of following scientific evidence and the Clean Air Act’s explicit requirements, the administration is using an Orwellian playbook to reinvent climate change as a purportedly “beneficial” development. It’s disingenuous and dangerous disinformation.

The EPA has a long history of establishing effective emissions standards by regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. The environmental community, together with health practitioners, scientists, elected officials, and industry, all agree that strong and sustained clean vehicle standards are essential for improving public health, reducing GHG emissions, improving air quality, saving money on fuel costs, driving innovation, and ensuring market certainty. 

Transportation accounts for 28 percent of all GHG emissions in the U.S., making it the sector that emits the highest portion of climate pollution in the country. Given the urgent threats of vehicle pollution on our air quality, weakening emissions standards is deadly. Abandoning U.S. leadership in cutting-edge vehicle pollution-reduction technology would also devastate the states’ ability to meet federal air quality non-attainment requirements. 

Adopting clean car standards has been one of the most significant actions the U.S. has taken to reduce its oil consumption, cut harmful air pollution, and save drivers money at the pump. At the same time, attempting to turn back the clock to build souped-up gas guzzlers is an economic boondoggle given the rapid advancements in vehicle technology and demand for electric vehicles. Paired with robust investments to onshore clean vehicle production, strong standards would help create high-quality manufacturing jobs in the U.S. By abandoning the enforcement of strong standards, the U.S. will surely further cede global manufacturing leadership to other countries where the rapid transition to clean and electric vehicles is in full swing and electric vehicles are now cheaper and better. 

Ambitious truck standards are also needed to reduce climate emissions. While medium- and heavy-duty vehicles comprise only about 6 percent of all vehicles on the road, they generate 26 percent of GHG emissions. The rapid deployment of electric trucks would help provide cleaner air for communities across the country, saving families money on health expenses, fewer sick days, trips to the hospital, and ultimately saving lives. According to Calstart’s Zeroing in on Zero-Emission Trucks Report, the U.S. is seeing steady progress in the rollout of medium- and heavy-duty zero-emission trucks. More than 52,500 zero-emission trucks (ZETs) are now on U.S. roads as of December 2024. Seventeen states have deployed more than 1,000 ZETs, with Texas and Florida following California’s lead. We need manufacturers to continue delivering zero-emission trucks to meet the fleet transition goals of municipalities and companies across the country.

The EPA’s proposal to rescind the endangerment finding, aligned with the administration’s reckless deregulatory and pro-fossil fuel agenda, will do serious harm to Americans. From 1980 through 2024, the U.S. suffered 403 billion-dollar weather and climate disasters that claimed nearly 17,000 lives and resulted in more than $2.9 trillion in direct costs. Too many people have already experienced trauma from extreme weather, wildfire smoke, and harmful air pollution. Regulations to curb emissions are paramount to limit increasingly severe harm– much of which will be disproportionately borne by low-wealth communities and people of color. Policymakers cannot continue to ignore and reject evidence of climate change. We’re demanding action now before it’s too late.

EPA's core responsibility is to protect the health of the American people and our natural environment. The undersigned groups urge the EPA to do its job and maintain and enforce strong vehicle GHG standards. 

Sincerely,

350Mass--Transportation Working Group

ACQ (Ask the Climate Question)

Acterra EV Charging for ALL Coalition

Action Together New Jersey

AFT New Jersey

Alliance for Clean Energy New York

Alliance for Metropolitan Stability 

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments

Alternatives for Community & Environment (ACE)

American Resilience Project

Baltimore 350

California Interfaith Power & Light

Cedar Lane Unitarian Universalist Environmental Justice Ministry

Center for Biological Diversity

Change the Chamber

Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Clean Air Task Force

Clean Energy Works

Clean Water Action/Clean Water Fund

Climate Action Campaign

Climate Action of Southwest Washington

The Climate Mobilization, Montgomery County MD

Climate Power

Climate Reality

Climate Reality Chicago

Climate Reality Greater Maryland

Climate Solutions

Coalition for Clean Affordable Energy

Coalition for Clean Air

Coalition for Clean Transportation

Coltura

Connecticut League of Conservation Voters

Conservation Law Foundation

CT Citizen Action Group (CCAG)

CURE

Dayenu: A Jewish Call to Climate Action

Douglas County Global Warming Coalition

Drive Electric Columbus

EarthDay.org

Earthjustice

Earth Guardians (EG)

Ecology Center

Elders Action Network

Elders Climate Action

Electric Vehicle Association

Electric Vehicle Club of Connecticut

Environmental Defense Fund

Environmental Law & Policy Center

Evergreen Collaborative

Fresh Energy (MN)

Generation180

Go Green Illinois

Green Energy Consumers Alliance

The Green Energy Institute at Lewis & Clark Law School

GreenLatinos

The Greenlining Institute

Greenpeace USA

Green Sanctuary, Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring 

Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate

Labor Network for Sustainability

Latino Outdoors

League of American Bicyclists

League of Conservation Voters (LCV)

Maryland League of Conservation Voters

Medical Advocates For Healthy Air

Metro East Green Alliance

Michigan Environmental Council

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

MN350 Action

Moms Clean Air Force

Mothers Out Front

Mountain Mamas

Move LA

Native Sun Community Power Development

Natural Resources Council of Maine

Natural Resources Defense Council 

Neighbors for Clean Air

New Jersey League of Conservation Voters

New Jersey Policy Perspective

New Jersey Sustainable Business Network

New Mexico & El Paso Interfaith Power and Light

New York City Environmental Justice Alliance

New Yorkers for Clean Power

Newton EV Task Force

Oregon Environmental Council

Oregon League of Conservation Voters

Pacific Environment

Paired Power, Inc.

Physicians for Social Responsibility

Plug In America

Portland Clean Energy Task Force

Project Green Home

Prosperity Works

Public Citizen

Regional Asthma Management & Prevention

Reno + Sparks Chamber of Commerce 

Riders Alliance

RiSE4EJ

SanDiego350

Sierra Club

Solar United Neighbors

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

Southern Environmental Law Center

Southwest Energy Efficiency Project

St. Andrew's School

Union of Concerned Scientists

Unitarian Universalist Advocacy Network of Illinois

Verde

Virginia Clinicians for Climate Action

Virginia League of Conservation Voters

Voices for Progress

WE ACT for Environmental Justice