[V]ermont’s Attorney General TJ Donovan has joined colleagues in states and cities opposing the Trump administration’s rollback of federal fuel emissions standards.
Earlier this year, the EPA called for an evaluation of its previously issued final 2022-2025 vehicle greenhouse gas emission standards, which call for an annual 4.4 percent reduction in emissions. The agency, along with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, proposed a new rule this August that would freeze 2020 standards from 2021-2026.
Donovan and colleagues from 20 other states say in comments filed last Friday that the EPA’s reversal “constitutes a wholesale abdication” of the agency’s Clean Air Act mandate to minimize harmful air pollutants. The agency issued a finding in 2009 that singled out six greenhouse gases from vehicles as endangering public health.
“Vermonters want and deserve clean air,” said Donovan in a statement Friday. “We have been a leader nationally in the area of vehicle emissions and Vermont will remain committed to clean air and to fighting the federal rollback.”
The coalition is calling on the EPA to withdraw the proposed rollback, saying that the Trump administration’s proposal will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions and stymie U.S. car manufacturer innovation over the next six years.
The federal government set average fuel economy, or “CAFE” (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) standards, for cars and light trucks following the oil embargo of the 1970s. Nick Persampieri, assistant attorney general for the state, said in an interview Monday that the standards are “perhaps the most significant effort the country has taken to address greenhouse gas emissions.”
The Vermont attorney general’s office opposes the rollback because climate change is “an urgent problem that is affecting Vermonters even now, through increasingly frequent severe storms and resulting flooding and damage to communities,” said Persampieri. He added that the attorney general’s office is also against the relaxation of fuel economy standards from a consumer protection standpoint as less efficient vehicles cost more in gas money.
Nationally, there has been an increase in the number of lawsuits filed against the EPA by state attorneys general since Trump took office, said Persampieri.
“It’s unusual, I think it’s unprecedented, for any administration to attempt to revoke so many environmental rules,” he added.
The EPA also announced that it is considering revoking a federal waiver granted to California to adopt stricter emissions standards. Vermont and 12 other states — representing about a third of the U.S. vehicle market — have adopted California emissions standards.
The revocation could impact Vermont’s zero emissions vehicle standard as well, said Persampieri. Nine states have targets to increase annual sales of plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, with the goal of 3.3 million zero emission vehicles on the road by 2025.
Although General Motors called the Obama-era vehicle emission reduction targets “not technologically feasible” in a comment last Friday, the automobile manufacturer also called on the federal government to establish a national zero emission vehicle program and update building codes to accommodate electric vehicle charging.
The comment letter by the attorneys general is in addition to an ongoing lawsuit filed this May by a coalition of states, including Vermont, over the EPA’s withdrawal of its previously issued standards.
