Date: February 25, 2021
Subject: Working Together on Strong Vehicle Standards to Boost the Economy, Create Jobs and Protect Health
To: President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.
Dear President Biden,
On behalf of the millions of members of our organizations, we thank you for your visionary climate leadership, your dedication to creating jobs here in the U.S, and protecting communities on the front lines of air pollution and climate change.
America’s transportation sector is the leading source of the carbon pollution driving dangerous climate events, and a primary contributor to air pollution that threatens public health, especially in communities of color most impacted by the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.
We applaud your Day One executive order to revisit the Trump administration’s rollback of the clean car standards through model year 2025 and its illegal preemption of California emission standards, as this is a key first step in addressing transportation emissions. We urge the administration to next act quickly to reinstate California’s waiver and restore national standards at least to levels set during the Obama-Biden administration. The Obama-Biden standards set in 2012 were and are achievable. In 2017, President Trump gutted those standards; while the California-automaker deal in 2020 put us partially back on the pathway, it is now time to restore the Obama-Biden standards and go even further.
New long-term clean car standards, which build on the legacy of these interim standards, are also critical to realize your vision of full vehicle electrification that eliminates tailpipe pollution while securing and growing high road auto sector jobs and manufacturing, ensuring pocketbook and health gains for families as well as frontline communities struggling with pollution from roadways.
We therefore further request that you immediately direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to lead the development of new long-term multi-pollutant standards that will help put the nation on a trajectory to make all new cars and light-duty trucks zero-emission vehicles no later than 2035, including a 2030 standard that achieves fleet average emissions 60% or more below today’s average.1
In addition, the administration should take immediate action on medium and heavy-duty vehicles. Across the U.S., health-threatening air pollution is concentrated in low-income communities and communities of color. Ambitious standards that drive electrification for medium and heavy-duty vehicles are essential for protecting health in communities adjacent to highways, ports, warehouses, and freight corridors.
EPA should adopt standards for durable reductions in oxides of nitrogen, particulate matter, and greenhouse gases that are consistent with 100 percent zero emission vehicle sales no later than 2040. All new urban delivery, school and transit buses should be zero-emissions by 2035. Near-term EPA standards should provide pollution reductions consistent with the reductions that states are seeking through California’s recent Heavy-Duty Omnibus and Advanced Clean Trucks rules.
Strong vehicle standards will spur the creation of high-quality domestic jobs if complementary steps are taken to ensure that zero-emission vehicles and their parts are made by U.S. workers to the maximum extent possible. These supporting policies will require sustained and coordinated efforts at every level of government and with a myriad of stakeholders. Your Buy America executive order will help drive these investments. We request that you also support incentives to develop and produce zero-emission vehicle technologies in the U.S., helping to promote good paying jobs here. Electric vehicle demand is growing globally, and China and Europe are investing heavily to be the world’s suppliers of batteries and other zero-emission vehicle parts. With swift action, the U.S. can scale up and become a global electric vehicle production powerhouse.
Thank you for your leadership in growing the economy, protecting people’s health, and avoiding the ravages of the climate crisis. We are excited to work with you on all these initiatives to achieve our shared goals of meeting the demands of science while investing in the U.S. workforce.
Sincerely,
Mitchell S. Bernard
Interim President & Chief Counsel
Natural Resources Defense Council
Dominique Browning
Director and Co-Founder
Moms Clean Air Force
Michael Brune
Executive Director
The Sierra Club
Ken Cook
President and Co-Founder
Environmental Working Group
Alex Cornell du Houx
President
Elected Officials Protecting America
Amy Davidsen
Executive Director
The Climate Group
Abigail Dillen
President
Earthjustice
Geri Freedman
Co-Chair
Elders Climate Action
Mary Beth Gallagher
Executive Director
Investor Advocates for Social Justice
Michael Garfield
Executive Director
The Ecology Center
Rev. Susan Hendershot
President
Interfaith Light and Power
Katie Huffling
Executive Director
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
Gene Karpinski
President
League of Conservation Voters
Howard A. Learner
President
Environmental Law and Policy Center
Mark Magaña
CEO and Founding President
GreenLatinos
Matthew Metz & Janelle London
Co-Executive Directors
Coltura
Steven M. Nadel
Executive Director
American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy
Kathleen Rest
Executive Director
Union of Concerned Scientists
Michelle Romero
National Director
Dream Corps Green for All
Kierán Suckling
Executive Director & Co-Founder
Center for Biological Diversity
Terry Travis
President
EVHybridNoire
Wendy Wendlandt
President
Environment America
Dr. Scott Williams
Executive Director
The Healthy Environment Alliance of Utah
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.
President and Founder
Hip Hop Caucus
CC:
Gina McCarthy
National Climate Advisor
Brian Deese
Director of the National Economic Council
Ali Zaidi
Deputy National Climate Advisor
Austin Brown
Senior Director for Transportation Emissions
Notes
1 At least a 60 percent reduction is achievable while assuming that the standards include upstream emissions from electricity or hydrogen production, transmission, distribution and charging or fueling for plug-in electric and fuel cell electric vehicles. Removing upstream emissions from compliance would require a more stringent standard level. We also assume that credit multipliers are not extended past 2021 and that off-cycle credits are capped at 10 g/mi.