The BlueGreen Alliance Comments on EPA’s Revised 2023 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards
We know that climate change and economic injustice are the most fundamental challenges we face today—and we know they’re inextricably intertwined. In the transportation sector, which accounts for 30 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, this intersection is visible in the disproportionate impact of transportation emissions on low-income and non-white communities. It’s visible in the disparities in access to cleaner vehicles and other mobility options across income levels. And it’s visible in the economic impacts of decades of disinvestment in auto manufacturing communities, which have seen good jobs offshored and anchor facilities shuttered due to ill-conceived industrial policies that gutted the middle class.
That’s why it’s critical that we use all the tools we have at our disposal to urgently reduce greenhouse gas emissions through policies and investments that engage and benefit all people—from the manufacturing workers who build the vehicles of the future, to the people who drive them. From the communities where they are made, to the communities where they are driven. Strong clean vehicle standards—accompanied by policies to rebuild manufacturing, protect and create good family supporting jobs, and revitalize communities—are critical to achieving these aims.