Yesterday, I watched EPA Administrator Michael Regan announce historic protections from tailpipe pollution—and I’m not too embarrassed to admit it: I had tears in my eyes.
We—all of us at Moms, you, our members, and our larger community of colleagues and coalition members—have worked so hard, so diligently, to get to this point. Our own colleague, Liz Hurtado, presented remarks before Administrator Regan and the crowd outside EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC, about the terrible health impacts of tailpipe pollution. Asthma. Lung disease. Cardiovascular disease.
These proposals for new tailpipe pollution protections—one for cars and one for heavy-duty trucks—mark a moment of transformation in the transition to zero-emission vehicles.
Cars and trucks play a critical role in our lives and our economy, but the pollution they generate is toxic for our families and communities. Vehicle exhaust is a major contributor to climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions and has been linked to numerous health harms.
Cleaning up transportation pollution and accelerating our transition to zero-emissions vehicles can’t come quickly enough.
The questions from reporters yesterday really struck me. Oddly, at one end, reporters asked about why the standards are not even more stringent. As it is, they are very ambitious and will require an “all in” attitude from vehicle manufacturers, battery factories, charging infrastructure, the works.
At the other end, the FOX reporter said, “Don’t you think these standards are too difficult to achieve?”
That one really caught my attention. We live in a country that has achieved so many things that seemed impossible—and in my lifetime—starting with putting people on the moon, all the way up to deploying an internet that has utterly transformed the way we do everything. We tend to forget: The internet got its start 50 years ago as a government program!
As for the automotive industry, it has a history of huge innovation—and the industry teamed up with government to get a highway system done. We’ve done the ambitious thing before, and we will do it again.
There is too much at stake not to. For the sake of our children’s health. For the sake of the climate’s equilibrium—which will be put at grave risk if global warming spins out of control.
Join Moms across the country in calling on EPA to finalize the strongest possible protections from transportation pollution. We can’t miss this opportunity to reduce health-harming pollution, address climate change, advance environmental justice, and create jobs.
TELL EPA: WE NEED THE STRONGEST POSSIBLE CLEAN CAR STANDARDS