As E&E News reported^[13], a leaked draft of the final rule obtained by Carper’s office reveals flaws in the cost-benefit analysis that the Trump administration failed to correct from an earlier version that leaked in January. Additional costs of the rule include more premature deaths from tailpipe air pollution and more consumer spending on gasoline with vehicles that are less fuel-efficient.

Disastrous for Health and the Climate

Environmental advocates and former EPA officials slammed the Trump administration’s clean car standards rollbacks, noting the adverse impacts they are expected to have on public health at a time when the U.S. is reeling from the coronavirus public health crisis.

“Actions that increase air pollution and costs are dangerous at any time, but taking such action now, when the country’s attention is focused on a pandemic, is unconscionable,” Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) Peter Zalzal said in a statement.

“The Trump administration’s rollback condemns Americans to choke on smog and suffer more climate pollution from refineries and tailpipes,” said^[14] Maya Golden-Krasner, a Los Angeles-based attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It’s shameful that Trump officials pushed this through during a viral pandemic that preys on people with asthma and other health problems linked to dirty air.”

Lower fuel economy results in greater tailpipe emissions, increasing hazardous air pollutants and planet-warming carbon emissions. One group, the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) estimates^[15] that the administration’s action will add at least 131 million metric tons of carbon dioxide to the air annually by 2035.

“The rollback does not follow what we know from health science; it will instead make air quality worse and threaten the health of our children, the elderly, outdoor workers, and people who suffer from respiratory illnesses and heart disease,” said^[16] Trish Koman, PhD, who served as a Senior Environmental Scientist in the EPA Office of Transportation and Air Quality and currently is a researcher at the University of Michigan School of Public Health.