States to EPA: Uphold the Clean Car Standards!

Media Contacts

Environment America

Today 17 states and Washington, D.C., representing over 40 percent of the U.S. population, filed suit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its “arbitrary and capricious” decision to rollback the clean car standards, the best federal program to fight global warming. The states that are party to the lawsuit are: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington state.  

On April 2nd, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt announced that the agency would begin the process to revoke standards that, when fully phased in, are projected to make our vehicles go twice as far on a gallon of gas and eliminate six billion metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. The next day, Environment America and our supporters delivered a citizen citation to Administrator Pruitt for harming our nation’s health and heading in the wrong direction.

Environment America and our state affiliates have been a leading force in winning national clean car standards and even stronger standards in 13 states across the country. We’ll continue the fight to defend those standards and the EPA’s mission to protect our health and environment, while pushing for all new cars sold in the United States to be zero emission by 2035.

Andrea McGimsey, Global Warming Solutions Director for  Environment America stated:

Seventeen states are standing up for the rights of their citizens to a stable climate and clean air. The mission of the EPA is to protect the environment and public health. Clearly Administrator Pruitt has not upheld this critical mission, so the states have rightfully filed this lawsuit to hold the administration accountable to the rule of law.

We applaud the attorneys general for this action, and we look forward to supporting their defense of the clean car standards.