Senate Bill Aims to Rollback Clean Car Standards

MASSPIRG

Contact: Matthew Casale, 617-747-4314, [email protected]

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, Senators Blunt (R-MO), Moran (R-KS ), Young (R-IN), Stabenow (D-MI), Peters (D-MI), and McCaskill (D-MO) introduced a bill to amend vehicle standards, also known as the “Blunt Clean Cars Rollback”.

In response to the bill, Matthew Casale, Staff Attorney for MASSPIRG, issued the following statement:

“After the hottest year on record (which followed the hottest year on record), the last thing we should do is undermine the life-saving clean car standards.

As transportation continues to dominate as America’s #1 source of climate pollution it’s evident we need cleaner cars, not rollbacks to our existing progress.

Thus MASSPIRG vigorously opposes the Blunt Clean Cars Rollback which would actually increase oil consumption and global warming pollution at the exact moment when we need to be ratcheting down pollution from cars.

If passed this bill would result in approximately 350 million barrels of additional oil being burned, 155 million metric tons of global warming emissions, and an additional $34 billion in fuel costs for Americans.

Congress should oppose the Blunt Clean Cars Rollback and any other measure that would allow automakers and oil companies to undermine our public health, environment, energy security and consumer savings by increasing global warming pollution and oil consumption. We should be doing all we can to reduce global warming pollution and our dependence on oil, not cheating Americans out of a safer climate, improved health and consumer savings.”

 -30-

MASSPIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization that stand up to powerful interests whenever they threaten our health and safety, our financial security, or our right to fully participate in our democratic society. U.S. PIRG is the federation of state Public Interest Research Group. wwwmasspirg.org