Reducing Pollution from Cars and Trucks

How do cars and trucks affect our air?

Cars and trucks can emit a range of harmful pollutants, such as fine particle pollution, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide. Tailpipe emissions from cars and trucks can also combine with heat and air in the atmosphere to form ground-level ozone, or smog.

The transportation sector is the largest source of climate pollution in the US.

How does the pollution from cars and trucks harm you?

Exposure to the pollution from cars and trucks can cause a range of health effects in people, such as asthma, lung infections, heart attacks, stroke, premature death, low birth weight, and cancer.

What are the Clean Car Standards?

The Clean Car Standards were adopted in 2012 to set standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. These standards were adopted with broad support from automakers, labor, and consumers—including members of Moms Clean Air Force, who testified on their behalf and pushed automakers and lawmakers in support of strong regulations.

The Clean Car Standards have proved achievable and cost-effective for the auto industry. They have delivered the cleanest and most efficient vehicles the American people have ever known. They saved families money at the pump and reduced our reliance on foreign oil. And because the transportation sector is the largest source of climate-warming carbon dioxide pollution in the US, they are our country’s most significant program to fight climate change.

Moms are fighting to clean up tailpipe pollution from cars and trucks—and you can help.

The Biden administration has pledged a 50% reduction of climate pollution from 2005 levels by 2030. To help meet that pledge, EPA finalized strong near-term standards to cut climate pollution from cars in December 2021. This victory happened in large part because Moms Clean Air Force showed up in force at EPA’s virtual public hearing and then joined with coalition partners to deliver more than 200,000 written comments in favor of the strongest possible rule to EPA Administrator Regan.

Moms Clean Air Force is now turning attention to greenhouse gas emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks. In March 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a proposal to strengthen standards for harmful air pollution from heavy-duty vehicles. The proposal would reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution from heavy-duty trucks, as well as greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from buses and trucks. Although the proposal is a welcome step forward, it doesn’t go far enough. It must be strengthened, to better protect children, people with asthma, older adults, and other vulnerable groups from the health harms of air pollution.