Congress Urged to Protect New Standards by Rejecting Efforts to Weaken Clean Air Act
Boston – In a huge win for Massachusetts’ environment, public health and energy security, the Obama administration today announced new standards for automobile fuel economy and global warming emissions. An Environment Massachusetts analysis found that these new federal standards—based on the “clean cars program” developed by California and adopted by 13 other states, including Massachusetts—will save residents 228 million gallons of gasoline by 2016 as compared to the previous federal standards, while reducing emissions of global warming pollutants and providing a net economic savings to consumers.
“Thanks to Massachusetts’ leadership, the cars of tomorrow will be cleaner and cost less to fuel than the cars of today,” said Ben Wright, Advocate with Environment Massachusetts, “Today’s announcement is a huge step toward breaking our dependence on oil and serves as a reminder that states like Massachusetts have always taken the lead in pushing policies to reduce global warming pollution.”
Environment Massachusetts was joined by the Conservation Law Foundation and the Massachusetts Sierra Club in applauding this announcement
“This is a proud moment for Massachusetts,” said Sue Reid, senior attorney at Conservation Law Foundation. “The Clean Cars effort led by Massachusetts and others shows that states can provide innovative solutions that lead to broader efforts needed to bring about progress on climate change. To maintain and build on the gains we have made, it is critically important that state authority be kept intact as Federal climate legislation is drafted.”
“These new cars will save nearly 2 billion barrels of oil and keep 950 million metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere. Clean cars are long overdue!” said James McCaffrey, Director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club.
Massachusetts adopted the clean car standards in 2006, but the push for cleaner cars has been happening for decades. In the late 1960s, state officials in California responded to horrific air pollution in cities like Los Angeles by adopting the first-ever tailpipe emission standards for cars. This paved the way for federal adoption of vehicle standards in the Clean Air Act, though the Act allowed California to continue setting its own, tougher emission standards for cars, and enabled other states to adopt these standards.
In 2002, California enacted legislation designed to reduce global warming pollution from automobiles. This resulted in rules to reduce global warming pollution from new cars and light trucks by 30 percent by 2016 compared with 2002 levels – a step that would result in improved vehicle fuel economy.
Frustrated with federal inaction to address automobile emissions and fuel economy, 13 states – Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington – soon moved to adopt the program.
Automakers and auto dealers, who opposed the program at the state level, challenged the program in court, while the Bush administration Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) delayed a decision on whether to grant the waiver needed under the Clean Air Act for California and other states to implement the standards. Following the Supreme Court’s 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA that the agency possessed the authority to regulate global warming pollution, and two years after California’s initial request, the Bush administration EPA finally denied the waiver in December 2007.
As one of his first acts in office, President Obama instructed the EPA to reconsider California’s waiver request, which later resulted in EPA granting the waiver. In May, the Obama administration announced an agreement with the automakers and the state of California that enabled the creation of a single, national fuel economy/global warming emissions program for cars based on the California standards. The just-announced standards are the result of that effort.
The new standards are expected to reduce gasoline consumption by as much as 11.6 billion gallons per year in 2016 nationally—nearly as much as is consumed by all the vehicles in Texas in a year—and save consumers up to $31.8 billion annually at the pump in 2016. The new standard will also reduce global warming pollution from vehicles by 108 million metric tons per year in 2016, or as much global warming pollutions as is produced by 28 500-MW coal-fired power plants.
Despite the agreement between the Obama administration, automakers and California – and the fact that 80 percent of the public approves of stronger fuel economy standards for vehicles – the clean cars program still faces attacks. Senator Lisa Murkowski’s Dirty Air Act (S.J.Res. 26), for example, would effectively veto EPA’s scientific finding that global warming pollutants threaten human health and the environment – thereby blocking the standards. The companion resolution in the House – introduced by three separate sets of members, including the Republican leadership (H.J.Res. 77), Democrats Ike Skelton (MO) and Collin Peterson (MN; H.J.R. 76), and Republicans Jerry Moran (KS) and Marsha Blackburn (TN; H.J.Res. 66) – and three additional House bills (H.R. 391, H.R. 4396, H.R. 4572) also would block the clean cars program and otherwise undermine the Clean Air Act.
“Weakening the Clean Air Act would be one of the worst moves Congress could make for Massachusetts’ environment,” said Ben Wright. “We urge Massachusetts’ U.S. Representatives and Senators to let the country reap the benefits of these clean car standards by opposing any and all efforts to weaken the Clean Air Act.”
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Environment Massachusetts is a state-based, citizen-funded environmental organization working for clean air, clean water, and open space.
