Local air pollution, regional smog, lung disease, and acceleration of climate change impacts and costs in New York State will all get worse if the Trump regime’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ends tailpipe emission standards and regulations for greenhouse gases as they proposed Tuesday, says the nonprofit advocate Adirondack Wild: Friends of the Forest Preserve.
On July 29th, U.S. EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced that his agency plans to terminate its legal authority (the 2009 Endangerment to Public Health and Welfare Rule pertaining to vehicle standards) to control car and truck greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).
Cars and trucks are the largest source of GHG emissions in the U.S. EPA itself estimates that U.S. car and truck emissions equate to the fourth largest source of global emissions. Regulating those emissions under the 2009 Endangerment Rule reduces millions of tons of GHG emissions annually.
“By eliminating its 2009 rule and turning a blind eye to the scientific certainty that greenhouse gas emissions endanger public health, EPA is proposing to abandon ship and betray its very mission and purpose,” says Adirondack Wild’s David Gibson. Earlier this summer, EPA announced it also plans to repeal all GHG emissions standards for fossil fuel-fired power plants.
“Our environmental agency in Washington is on a collision course with rock-hard environmental facts,” Gibson added. “Ending standards and controls over tailpipe and power plant pollution is likely to accelerate climate change, shorten our winters, make rainstorms more violent, increase flood risks, and cause insurance rates to rise faster. Moreover, businesses which manufacture and sell hybrid and electric cars and pollution reduction equipment may also suffer economic losses.”
“By suddenly ending federal regulation of automobile, truck, and industrial GHG emissions, EPA may also contribute to greater quantities of acid rain causing pollutants over our “forever wild” mountains and lakes,” Gibson added, referring to the Adirondack and Catskill Parks.
New Yorkers wishing to comment can tell U.S. EPA what they think and how they feel about Administrator Zeldin’s announcement yesterday .
The comment period on ending EPA’s authority to regulate tailpipe and industrial smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide runs through September 21. You can comment via email at a-and-r-Docket@epa.gov, subject line: Re. Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2025-0194. Other ways to comment are found at www.epa.gov.
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Illustrations, from above: and US Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector, 1990-2020 (EPA); and U.S. Transportation Sector Greenhouse Gas Emissions in 2022 (EPA).
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