Javier Sierra, javier.sierra@sierraclub.org, 703.927.4750
(English follows)
(English)
Sierra Club Statement: Major US Automakers Knew About Climate Change 50 Years Ago
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, E&E News published the findings of a months-long investigation that found two major US automakers, General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor Company, knew emissions from automobiles contributed to climate change as early as the 1960s. In the decades to follow, they spread misinformation and lobbied nationally and globally against climate policies.
Over the last several years, the two automakers have both lobbied the Trump administration to roll back the Obama clean car standards, the nation’s most influential and ambitious regulation to tackle climate change.
Even more egregious, GM is one of the automakers that sided with the Trump administration last year to attack California’s long-standing authority to set more stringent emission standards for new motor vehicles, a move that attacks state authority, clean air and climate progress.
Preliminary analysis indicates that the Trump administration’s rollback of the clean car standards would increase fuel costs by more than $240 billion; result in 18,555 premature deaths; produce 1.5 billion metric tons of climate pollution; and contribute to one million lost work days.
Gina Coplon-Newfield, Director of Sierra Club’s Clean Transportation for All campaign, released the following statement:
"General Motors and Ford, like Exxon, knew about climate change and chose to prioritize their profits over our health and safety.
“GM claims its climate denial is in the past, but the company’s actions tell a different tale. 50 years after it first concealed climate change, the automaker is siding with the worst administration ever for our clean air and water in one of its most reckless and destructive actions yet, the reversal of public health and climate-protecting clean car standards.”
“The Sierra Club will continue to expose the hypocrisy of automakers that claim innovation when they remain stuck in reverse on progress.”
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Sobre el Sierra Club
El Sierra Club es la mayor y más influyente organización medioambiental de base en Estados Unidos y cuenta con cerca de 4 millones de miembros y seguidores en todo el país. Además de crear oportunidades para que personas de todas las edades, niveles y localizaciones puedan disfrutar de la naturaleza, el Sierra Club se esfuerza en salvaguardar la salud de las comunidades, proteger la vida silvestre, y preservar los restantes parajes naturales por medio de activismo de base, educación pública, cabildeo y en las cortes. Para más información visite: www.sierraclub.org/ecocentro.
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with close to 4 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, 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.