Yesterday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a rollback of auto emissions standards. Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation, issued a statement that this will create jobs and allow more people to buy newer, safer, cars.
In reality, this move will harm more Americans, make us sicker, and cause more people to die too early. It will definitely create more jobs, but they will be in the healthcare sector. The new rule will allow nearly 1 billion tons of extra CO2 into the atmosphere, feeding climate change at a time we need to be maxed out fighting climate change. And cars may be cheaper, but by having to buy more gas, we will end up spending more money in the long run.
Not only will this new rule harm us with more air pollution, but EPA’s own science advisers said “there are significant weaknesses in the scientific analysis.” So it is both harmful, and flawed.
In addition, we are right now in the midst of a viral pandemic with COVID-19. Studies have shown that air pollution makes people more at risk of other coronaviruses, and scientists expect this to be true of this coronavirus. It is a bit of a gut punch to have air pollution standards weakened while we are maxing out our efforts to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
It is expected that there will be legal challenges. So not only are we harming our health, we are wasting our tax dollars defending a scientifically weak rule against legal challenges.
