(Washington, DC – May 11, 2023) Experts from the Environmental Defense Fund testified in support of critically important climate and health safeguards at two EPA public hearings this week.
Andy Su testified on behalf of EDF during the EPA’s three-day public hearing on its proposed multi-pollutant tailpipe pollution standards for passenger cars and trucks and medium-duty vehicles. The EPA proposal would cut billions of tons of climate pollution, significantly reduce other deadly pollutants from the U.S. transportation sector, and help ensure that an estimated two-thirds of all new passenger cars and trucks sold in America in 2032 would have zero emissions. . Hundreds of people gathered at the agency’s public hearing to evaluate the proposal.
“EPA’s proposal is feasible, cost-effective and a vital step forward,” Su said in his testimony today. “Standards at this level are eminently achievable thanks to manufacturer and fleet investments and commitments, historic federal investments, rapidly declining ZEV costs, and state policies such as the Advanced Clean Cars II and Advanced Clean Trucks standards , which have already been adopted by half a dozen other states … We urge the agency to finalize the most protective multipollutant standards possible that are consistent with and derived from the proposals.”
Su also noted that historic investments in the Inflation Reduction Act and the bipartisan Infrastructure Act have been driving the push for protective national safeguards. The rapid decline in the costs of zero-emission vehicles, accelerated by the Consumer and Commercial Vehicle Credits of the Inflation Reduction Act, will save families and fleets thousands of dollars in avoided fuel costs. Additionally, a new report from EDF and WSP found that more than $120 billion in electric vehicle manufacturing investments have already been announced over the past eight years, along with 143,000 new U.S. jobs in sector, with more than 40% of these ads. since the approval of the Inflation Reduction Act. The analysis also found that already announced U.S. production facilities will be capable of making 4.3 million new zero-emission vehicles annually by 2026, which is about a third of all new vehicles sold in the year past
The EPA has also proposed new protection standards for heavy vehicles such as cargo trucks, delivery vans and buses. EDF experts also testified at the agency’s multi-day public hearing on this proposal earlier this month.
And yesterday, Richard Yates testified for EDF at a public hearing on the EPA’s proposal to modernize US air toxics and mercury standards. The proposal would strengthen pollution limits and increase control of toxic air pollution emitted by coal-fired power plants, some of the most dangerous and persistent air pollutants affecting Americans.
“In the Clean Air Act, Congress required EPA to establish standards that reflect the maximum possible emission reductions for hazardous air pollution because Congress understood the importance of protecting the public from such especially hazardous pollutants,” Yates said in his testimony. “EDF strongly supports the progress of the proposed rule, which will protect the health of all Americans, but especially sensitive populations affected by hazardous EGU pollution who are disproportionately communities of color, Indigenous communities, and low-income communities. income”.
Mercury emissions from power plants are linked to fatal heart attacks and high blood pressure in adults and to neurological effects in children, such as loss of IQ points and delayed development of memory, language and motor skills. Other toxic pollutants from power plants include cancer-causing nickel, arsenic, and hexavalent chromium, lead, and arsenic. The mercury and air toxics standards have reduced levels of these pollutants since the EPA first adopted them in 2012 by less than a quarter of what the EPA originally estimated what it would cost, but many coal plants in the US still emit high levels of toxic pollution. It has been more than a decade since the EPA last updated the standards.
