Ohioans Driving Opposition to Rollback of Clean Cars Standards

Submitted by: Frank Szollosi, Manager of Regional Outreach Campaigns,National Wildlife Federation, Ohio

Ohio students, labor union representatives and environmental advocates headed to Pittsburgh on Wednesday to voice their opposition to a proposal to slash critical fuel efficiency standards. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration held three hearings this week on the Trump Administration’s attempt to roll back the nation’s clean car standards, the best tool currently on the books to fight climate change. The federal fuel efficiency standards were on target to require vehicles to achieve 54.5 miles per gallon by the end of the year 2025.

Americans from around the country showed up in force in Fresno, CA; Dearborn, MI; and Pittsburgh, PA to fight for these common-sense standards since rolling them back will not only pollute our air and put lives at risk, but it will also force consumers to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more on gas.

Reversing the clean car standards would hold back the most advanced and fuel-efficient vehicles the American people have ever known—harming their health and costing them money. This short-sighted move will do nothing to help Ohio families and is simply the Trump administration’s attempt to dole out favors to the oil industry at our expense.

Pollution from the transportation sector has overtaken the fossil-fuel industry as the leading source of climate change pollution. Rolling back the fuel efficiency standards now will only serve to put the brakes on progress being made to reduce tailpipe emissions and save Americans money at the pump. The move also jeopardizes the job growth resulting from the production of cleaner vehicles in Ohio and across the region.

In Ohio, the auto industry has seen an undeniable resurgence since the near collapse back in the 2000s, fueled and strengthened by efforts to make all our vehicles cleaner than ever before. Around the state, workers are building everything from more efficient engines to stronger, lighter weight steel to advanced transmissions. Today’s fuel economy standards are proof that sound regulations can go hand in hand with making manufacturing thrive.

The numbers are hard to ignore. There are 80 Ohio factories and research facilities and more than 27,700 Ohio workers building technology that improves fuel economy for today’s innovative vehicles.

By 2025, fuel efficiency and clean car standards were expected to (all numbers are total benefits from 2012-2025):

· Nearly double fuel efficiency;

· Save 6 billion metric tons of dangerous tail-pipe pollution;

· Save America 12 billion barrels of oil;

· Save individual consumers $1,460 to $1,620 in fuel costs by the time the standards are fully implemented; and

· Save Americans $67 billion to $122 billion over the lifetime of vehicles when the standards are fully implemented.

Clean car standards deliver the safe, fuel-efficient cars that Ohio families want and need. With gas prices at their highest level in four years, families cannot afford to unnecessarily spend any more of their money at the pump. The current standards save consumers as much as $5,700 per car and $8,200 per truck over the lifetime of their vehicles.

But the Trump administration’s all-out assault on Americans’ health and safety goes beyond the clean cars rollback. This comes on the heels of the recent announcement by Trump and Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler that they plan to weaken methane pollution standards, which would create loopholes for polluters to allow dangerous pollution leaks from oil and gas infrastructure - another blatant giveaway to oil and gas interests at the expense of communities’ health and well-being.

In addition, the Administration has also gutted the Clean Power Plan, which set the first ever federal limits on carbon pollution from power plants and encourages the development of cleaner, safer energy. I will represent the National Wildlife Federation at an upcoming EPA hearing on the Clean Power Plan reversal in Chicago on October 1^st.

It is the job of the President to protect the health and safety of all American families and communities. But when faced with the impacts of climate change, they have repeatedly responded with dangerous proposals that deny science and roll back measures designed to reduce pollution and bolster the economy. Ohioans are making sure our voices are heard in this debate. There is just too much at stake.