Trump Administration Guts Clean Vehicle Standards and Wipes Out Longstanding Climate Finding

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Lee Zeldin will finalize a federal regulation that would obliterate the Environmental Protection Agency's greenhouse gas (GHG) emission standards for light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicles.

As a part of the Trump administration's wholesale attack on the EPA's ability to complete its stated mission to protect human health and the environment, they are also eliminating the 2009 "endangerment finding" (EF). The EF is a bedrock scientific finding that greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane endanger public health and welfare. See the Sierra Club's statement on the EF here.

Over a four-day public hearing in August 2025, over 97 percent of testifiers opposed the Trump administration's proposal, with hundreds of testifiers detailinghow increased vehicle pollution would personally harm their families. This rollback discourages production of electric vehicles, which produce no tailpipe pollution. Children and the elderly are particularly vulnerable to the toxic pollutants that gas-powered vehicles emit.

In response to the rollback of the vehicle greenhouse gas standards, Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All Director Katherine García released the following statement:

"Despite overwhelming public opposition, the Trump administration is bulldozing forward with their unpopular proposal allowing cars and trucks to spew destructive pollution for decades to come. This attack goes against the EPA's foundational mission to protect our environment and the health of all Americans. Eviscerating these standards will contribute to more extreme weather disasters caused by the climate crisis and to worsened air quality.

"This administration will stop at nothing to sacrifice the well-being of Americans in order to appease the fossil fuel industry and corporate interests, including the short-sighted auto and truck manufacturers that are standing beside them. For decades, manufacturers have lobbied against clean vehicle standards, which has cemented the transportation sector as the largest source of carbon pollution in the US.

"It is irresponsible and deadly for the administration to ignore the evidence of climate change and gut policies designed to curb climate emissions. Science shows that urgently transitioning to electric vehicles is imperative to protect our health and our climate at the pace required. We won't stop fighting to protect the integrity of the EPA against a pro-polluter administration that is hell-bent on destroying the agency."

Background:

• The endangerment finding gives EPA the formal statutory authority and obligation to regulate emissions of heat-trapping gases from motor vehicles-the largest source of climate pollution in the United States. It was adopted following a rigorous rulemaking process considering thousands of public comments and a massive record of scientific research, which has grown far more voluminous in the intervening years.
  
• The Sierra Club has been involved in the legal fight for federal climate standards longer than any other organization. In December 2002, the Club filed the first climate case under the Clean Air Act in federal court, seeking to force EPA to limit greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles under the statute. That lawsuit ultimately led to the Court's holding in Massachusetts and the agency's issuance of the endangerment finding in 2009.
  
• The transportation sector accounts for 28 percentof greenhouse gas emissions-more than any other sector in the US. The clean vehicle standards continue EPA's decades-long effort under the Clean Air Act to set standards that successfully reduce vehicle pollution, improve public health and prevent the worst of the climate crisis. For this latest round of final standards, the EPA engaged in a years-long, multi-stakeholder, comprehensive rulemaking process that engaged industry and civil society alike and would collectively avoid over eight billion tons of carbon emissions according to EPA analysis.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.