The Environmental Law & Policy Center (ELPC) and 24 Great Lakes and Midwest environmental and conservation organizations appreciate the opportunity to provide written comments on EPA’s proposal to issue new greenhouse gas emissions standards for model year (MY) 2023–26 cars and light trucks. Many of the undersigned organizations strongly supported the standards EPA issued in 2012 (jointly with fuel economy standards issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)), which set standards that steadily decreased emissions from new cars and trucks for model years 2017 through 2025,1 and opposed the prior administration’s deeply flawed rollback of those standards.
Reducing emissions from America’s cars and light trucks is critical to mitigating climate change and achieving President Biden’s goals and commitment in rejoining the Paris Climate agreement.3 The transportation sector is currently the leading source of U.S. climate-changing pollution, contributing 29% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.4 As a result of the prior administration’s rollback, the United States has lost years of emissions reductions as the urgency for action on climate change mounts daily. EPA must act urgently now to achieve emissions reductions.
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