Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) blasted the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) announcement that it is revoking California’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards, affecting the 13 other states and the District of Columbia that have adopted the stricter standards:
“This is a fiercely hypocritical attack on the Clean Air Act and states’ rights from a petty and vindictive President unable to accept that he’s wrong. Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have voluntarily adopted more protective clean car standards, and today the President told them that his spite toward certain states and automakers matters more to him than Americans’ health or the environment. Moreover, the Administration has no authority to take this unprecedented action, and I look forward to it being struck down in court.
“This move threatens to sabotage our fight against climate change, worsen air quality conditions across the country, force consumers to pay for less efficient cars, and throw the automotive industry into uncertainty and chaos. It is yet more evidence that this Administration is guided by the president’s unrelenting incompetence and malfeasance. We deserve better."
