The climate crisis affected our daily lives in a painful way this summer, exacerbating long-standing inequalities that harm our communities. Millions of Americans have had to swelter in heat waves, evacuate their homes in the face of onrushing wildfires or hurricanes, or bail out flooded homes. The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sounds the climate alarm louder than ever: The damage done by burning fossil fuels will only worsen unless we rapidly slash climate-disrupting emissions. To make transformative change to the transportation sector, the largest contributor to emissions in the U.S., the federal government must issue strong and enforceable standards.
The Biden administration is about to finalize new clean car standards, taking action to reverse Trump-era attacks which severely weakened the standards, and giving the U.S. back one of its strongest tools to combat the climate crisis and protect the health of Black, Latinx, low-income, and other marginalized people. The new standards could push manufacturers to produce fewer gas-guzzling vehicles as soon as next year.
Finalized in 2012 by then-President Barack Obama, these climate and clean air protections were shredded by former President Donald Trump. Clean car standards not only reduce emissions from cars and light trucks; they also cut down on vehicle pollution, improving air quality, especially in Black and Brown communities torn up by highways in the name of “urban renewal.” Further — take note, Republicans who blame the high price of gas on climate action — clean car standards actually save us money at the pump by increasing fuel efficiency.
But the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposal falls short in meeting the urgency of the moment. It is far too weak to achieve the climate progress we need, and it contains loopholes that would allow auto manufacturers to continue to double down on gas-guzzling vehicles. In their current state, these standards would result in much less pollution reduction than the auto industry agreed to in 2012 — nearly a decade ago — and undermine President Joe Biden’s own commitments around climate, public health and racial justice.
The health of our climate and communities depends on the administration making drastic improvements to the final rule and setting us on a path to 100 percent electric vehicle sales by 2035. The EPA’s proposal is simply not in line with the scale and pace of climate action demanded by today’s realities. The Biden administration’s final clean car standards should reflect everything we’ve learned since President Obama’s proposal about how brutal the climate crisis can be, and how imperative it is that we do everything we can to stop it.
On the flip side, the economic benefits of climate action were also less clear in 2012 than they are today. Most of us didn’t foresee how fast clean car technologies would evolve, making it easier for automakers to meet the standards we need. It was even harder to imagine a future where major automakers — which spent decades stymieing climate action — embraced electric vehicles. If the Biden administration puts out stronger clean car standards, automakers must respond by investing in cleaner vehicles. That would create millions of good unionized jobs — the kinds of jobs that offered generations of Americans more economic security.
One thing that was abundantly clear in 2012 is the fact that car exhaust contained pollutants that harmed our health and increased rates of asthma and other respiratory diseases — particularly in communities of color. When it comes to the history of transportation in the U.S., racism has helped determine where highways are situated, and who has the financial resources to escape the pollution they bring with them.
It has taken our leaders too many years to even acknowledge the disproportionate environmental harms faced by Black and Brown people. President Biden has pledged that addressing environmental racism is a central part of his presidency. It’s time for EPA to finalize clean car standards that slash vehicle pollution while charting a rapid transition to pollution-free electric vehicles that will save Black and Brown lives.
President Biden says he understands that this is an extraordinary moment in human history that demands bold action, not incremental change. The EPA has an opportunity to make up for decades of inaction and predatory delay by offering the country an improved tool to combat the climate crisis and ensure that everyone breathes clean air. As people around the country mobilize for stronger clean car safeguards, we hope the EPA will keep in mind a question posed by activist Grace Lee Boggs: “What time is it on the clock of the world?”
We’re not sure we know. But we’re pretty certain it’s not “2012.”
The public comment deadline for the EPA rulemaking is September 27, and anyone can submit comments here and here.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
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We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
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With love, rage, and solidarity,
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