What’s happening
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed revoking scientific evidence that greenhouse gases cause climate change, which threatens public health through extreme weather events, the spread of diseases, and food insecurity. This declaration is known as the Endangerment Finding. The EPA proposal also repeals all greenhouse gas pollution standards for vehicles.
This proposed rule is open for comments until Sept. 22, giving you time to tell the EPA what you think about ditching the Endangerment Finding, denying climate change exists, and eliminating standards regulating greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles.
Why it matters
The Endangerment Finding gives the federal government legal authority to combat the climate crisis. Without it, the EPA would be unable to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from burning fossil fuels. Besides the immediate effects, the reversal could make it nearly impossible for future presidential administrations to regulate pollution from burning oil, gas, and coal.
If the EPA rescinds the Endangerment Finding, here’s what will happen:
- EPA will lack the authority to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from vehicles.
- The EPA would be prohibited from regulating greenhouse gas emissions from other pollution sources, such as power plants and factories.
- The U.S. will effectively be adopting climate change denial as our national policy.
What you can do
- Go to the document open for comment on Regulations.gov
- Click the blue Comment button
- Choose your message (examples below) to copy and paste into the Comment field
- Edit the message to your liking
- Add your email address, select who you are representing (yourself or a group), and click Submit Comment
- Share with your friends. Comments are open until Sept. 22.
Comment templates
Option 1: Consumer choice
As a driver of a plug-in vehicle, I am writing to oppose the proposed repeal of EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards. I am one of over 7 million American consumers who choose to drive an electric vehicle. I drive an electric vehicle because I want clean air, lower fuel and maintenance costs, and a more efficient, fun-to-drive vehicle. Clean vehicle standards drive U.S. automaker innovation and create more choices for consumers.
The EPA emissions standards are structured to allow automakers the flexibility to meet goals using a variety of technologies, including internal combustion, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or electric drivetrains. This flexibility creates consumer choice.
A decade ago, shoppers could choose from 371 vehicle models. Today, car buyers have 415 models to choose from. A decade of increasingly stringent emissions standards has led to the availability of an additional 44 models; these standards increase consumer choice.
Keeping the existing standards in place means that gas vehicles continue to get cleaner and that consumers have more options for clean vehicles. I oppose the proposed rollback of EPA GHG standards because I want to have the choice to drive an electric vehicle.
Sources: https://www.anl.gov/esia/light-duty-electric-drive-vehicles-monthly-sales-updates#:~:text=BEVs%20account%20for%2080%25%20of,the%20end%20of%20June%202025 and https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=60321
Option 2: Public health
As a driver of a plug-in vehicle, I am writing to oppose the proposed repeal of EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards. Transportation is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gases and gas cars create dangerous pollution that costs the U.S. billions in healthcare costs. Keeping strong standards ensures gas vehicles continue to get cleaner, accelerating national pollution reductions that benefit our communities and our country.
78% of voters believe that increasing the number of electric vehicles on the road reduces air pollution, leading to reduced risk of health problems like asthma and heart disease. Given that the Environmental Protection Agency’s mission is to protect human health and the environment, I expect the EPA to be true to its mission and uphold the EPA emissions standards for vehicles.
Option 3: Climate change
As a driver of a plug-in vehicle, I am writing to speak out against the proposed repeal of EPA greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards and the Endangerment Finding. At a time when global temperatures are reaching all-time highs and exacerbating droughts, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes, we should not be debating something on which more than 99.9% of scientists agree.
Climate change from fossil fuel emissions contributes to deadly extreme weather events, such as flooding in Texas, Los Angeles wildfires, flooding from Hurricane Helene in North Carolina, and 70 days in a row of 110-degree heat in Phoenix, AZ. It has also increased the spread of diseases such as Zika, Lyme disease, and malaria, and threatened crops and food security.
Transportation is the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gases. EPA standards reduce GHG emissions while saving consumers money at the pump and increasing consumer choice. Electric vehicles reduce GHG emissions, which is one of the reasons I drive electric. Evidence proves climate change exists, and we need to do something about it. Keep the Endangerment Finding and the EPA vehicle greenhouse gas emissions standards!
Sources: https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-global-temperature#:~:text=According%20to%20the%20annual%20report,th%2Dwarmest%20year%20on%20record, https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2021/10/more-999-studies-agree-humans-caused-climate-change#:~:text=By%20Krishna%20Ramanujan,and%20the%20paper%27s%20first%20author, and https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-weather/2024/12/21/phoenix-az-weather-breaks-records-2024/77089660007/
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