Groups File Challenge to EPA’s Determination that Federal Standards are Not Appropriate and Must be Weakened
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- On Thursday, Sierra Club and its allies filed their merits brief in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, challenging EPA’s decision that the federal clean car standards for 2022 to 2025 are not appropriate and must be weakened. These standards, which the Trump administration is seeking to dismantle, would result in lower climate pollution from transportation - the largest single source of climate-disrupting pollution in our country - and significantly benefit consumers and the public.
In early 2017, the Obama EPA finalized its mid-term evaluation of the 2022 to 2025 standards, after a robust technical and public comment process that the agency was required to follow when it issued the standards in 2012. In this decision, EPA found the standards remained achievable and that automakers could actually meet those standards at lower costs than originally estimated. Under disgraced former administrator Scott Pruitt, the EPA backtracked on this final determination in April 2018, stating the standards were no longer appropriate and should be weakened.
Today’s filing is a step forward in the legal defense of the clean car standards for passenger cars and light trucks.
In response, Joanne Spalding, Chief Climate Counsel and Deputy Director of Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program, released the following statement:
“Adoption of the Clean Car Standards was one of the strongest, well-supported federal actions on climate that we have as a nation, and Donald Trump cannot be allowed to put us in reverse by deciding they are no longer appropriate and must be weakened. The stakes are high; while the current administration fails to even mention the word “climate change,” the EPA is seeking to sabotage a strong and amply supported policy that would prevent billions of greenhouses gases from tailpipe pollution, protect public health, and save consumers money at the pump. It’s past time that this administration put the American people before corporate polluters.”
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About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.