Trump rollback of CAFE standards will accelerate climate change
WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a meeting with auto industry executives today in Ypsilanti, Mich., Donald Trump is expected to announce a weakening of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards. Known as the CAFE standards, the regulations govern fuel efficiency for new cars and trucks sold in the United States.
Friends of the Earth’s Bluewater Network collaborated with then-California State Assembly member Fran Pavley (D- Canoga Park) to legislate carbon dioxide emissions in California. The California rule became the model for the national clean car standards that President Obama agreed to with the auto industry in 2009, and which were finalized in 2010.
Friends of the Earth Legal Director Marcie Keever offered the following response:
Rolling back fuel economy standards will accelerate climate change and increase American’s addiction to oil. Donald Trump wants to go back to the 1970s, when weak emission controls choked our skies with smog from cars and trucks.
Trump’s roll-back will hurt our environment now and derail our economy in the future. His decision to pander to the auto industry, which has had the ability to comply with stronger emission standards for decades, will plunge our cities back into the days of hazy smog.
###
Expert contact: Marcie Keever (510) 900-3144, [email protected]
Communications contact: Patrick Davis (202) 222-0744 [email protected]