Hearing in Michigan Brings Out Large Crowds in Favor of Strong Clean Car Standards

(Dearborn, MI – September 25, 2018) The Trump administration held a second hearing today on its proposed rollback of America’s Clean Car Standards – and heard testimony from a large crowd opposing their plan.

Average Americans, Members of Congress, and representatives of Ford Motor Company and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles spoke against the proposed rollback at today’s hearing in Dearborn, Michigan.

EDF consultant and former EPA senior executive Chet France joined the multitude of voices testifying against the Trump administration’s “severely flawed proposal and the contorted analysis that accompanies it.”

“[T]he agencies have statutory duties to protect public health and conserve energy. The proposal as written does neither,” said France in his testimony. “The proposal should be withdrawn and the current standards should be maintained through 2025.”

The Clean Car Standards, in effect since 2012, reduce climate pollution, improve fuel efficiency, and save Americans money at the gas pump. Last month the Trump administration proposed drastically weakening them.

The proposed rollback is based on controversial scientific and economic data. Experts have debunked what France called the administration’s “single most deceptive claim” – that the rollback would make cars safer. France also testified about other egregious flaws the administration used to justify its proposed rollback.

“The technical analysis by the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) — in which the Environmental Protection Agency career experts did not participate — represents an unprecedented departure from EPA’s and NHTSA’s own work over the previous seven years. NHTSA and EPA had consistently and independently shown that the current standards were feasible and would provide large net economic benefits to society,” said France in his testimony. “The NHTSA analysis, which EPA relies upon to justify relaxing its [greenhouse gas] standards, is seriously flawed in many fundamental ways and provides no rational basis whatsoever for the proposed massive roll back.”

The proposed rollback also attacks the right of states to protect people against harmful pollution – an action that is contrary to their well-established authority to play a leading role in addressing car and truck pollution.

The administration held its first hearing on the proposed rollback of the Clean Car Standards yesterday in Fresno, California. It will hold one more hearing tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Americans can also write to the agencies – now through October 26 – during the public comment period.

You can read France’s full testimony here, and read more about the Clean Car Standards on EDF’s website.