Yesterday the Sierra Club’s Green Transportation Director Ann Mesnikoff testified on behalf of the Sierra Club’s 1.4 million members and supporters in strong support of President Obama’s proposal to strengthen fuel efficiency and carbon pollution standards for cars and light trucks to 54.5 mpg by 2025.
The Sierra Club joined labor and environmental leaders, auto manufactuerers, suppliers, faith leaders and Michigan citizens at yesterdays public hearing in Detroit to testify in support of strong standards.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration officially proposed the new standards in November, which build on the President’s historic step to raise vehicle efficiency to 35.5 mpg in 2016 and begin reducing tailpipe carbon pollution levels. The newly proposed standards also reduce carbon emissions to 163 grams per mile in 2025.
These highly antifipated standards would result in significant savings at the pump for American families, reduce climate threatening carbon pollution and provide Americans with better and more fuel efficient vehicle choices.
Ann Mesnikoff, the Sierra Club’s Green Transportation Director, delivered the following statement:
“President Obama’s proposal to double the efficiency of America’s cars and light trucks is the biggest single step we have ever taken to move America beyond oil.
These standards are a big win for all Americans and will ensure more than a decade of progress toward breaking our dangerous addition to oil, creating American jobs, curbing life threatening pollution and tackling climate disruption. American families will see much needed relief at the gas pump as the auto industry moves toward a better, more efficient generation of American cars.
To put it in persepective, the average family buying a new car in 2025 will save more than $3,500 at the pump – even after paying for fuel saving technology. In 2030, Americans will use 1.5 million fewer barrels of oil every day, the same amount we imported from Saudi Arabia and Iraq in 2010, and cut carbon pollution by the amount equal to shutting down 72 coal fired power plants for a year.
Fuel efficiency and carbon pollution standards for cars and light trucks are just one critical piece of the equation for ending our addiction to oil. This new standard will put American innovation and technology to work to deliver the best cars and trucks for consumers, but we must also ensure smart transportation choices to reduce how much we drive such as transit, biking and walking, and reduce the carbon pollution in our fuels.
We look forward to working with President Obama and his administration to ensure that they finalize strong standards this July that deliver the strongest possible benefits to American families and workers through 2025 and beyond.”
Source: Sierra Club