Gov. Brown Mocks EPA Decision To Weaken Emission Standards

Sacramento, CA — Governor Jerry Brown spared no time rebuking the Environmental Protection Agency’s announcement today that it will relax vehicle emissions requirements.

Gov. Brown labeled the decision, which came a day after April Fool’s Day, a belated trick and an abuse of power that will poison the air and jeopardize the health of Americans.

In his official statement, Brown pointed out that the EPA, by its own analysis, is well aware that national clean car standards benefit consumers and the environment, both by reducing fuel costs and greenhouse gas pollution. Vehicles meeting the previously set 2022-25 standards was estimated to save consumers more than $1,650 per vehicle while also reducing oil consumption by nearly 40 billion gallons of refined gasoline and diesel fuel and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by 540 million metric tons.

Harkening back to a letter that he wrote last March to EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, Brown criticized the Trump Administration’s decision to review vehicle emissions standards as a move in the direction of big oil interests and one that puts politics ahead of science. The move to review the standards came the same day that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers filed an industry lawsuit in federal court over their feasibility. California later filed for the right to intervene and defend the feasibility determination.