Lung Association: EPA’s New Cleaner Cars Standards Will Improve Air Quality and Public Health

Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized a new rule that will place stricter limits on tailpipe emissions from new cars, including greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful emissions. In response to the new limits, the American Lung Association’s President and CEO Harold Wimmer issued the following statement:

“EPA just took a critical step to address climate change and reduce air pollution. Stronger limits on pollution from cars, pickups and SUVs will improve the air that everyone breathes and help prevent future health harms from climate change. We are especially pleased to see the final rule includes strong standards to reduce particulate matter from new gasoline vehicles. The strict standards will require state-of-the-art pollution controls that are widely used in Europe and Asia and will save lives. 

“While we applaud the stricter limits on car emissions, EPA must also urgently finalize stringent standards to limit greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, including freight trucks and buses. Trucks represent a small fraction of total on-road vehicles but generate the greatest share of harmful air pollutants. Reducing emissions from both cars and trucks is critical to improving public health, advancing health equity and addressing climate change.

“Cleaning up future cars has widespread public support. A recent poll released by the Lung Association found that a strong majority of voters support the EPA setting stricter limits on emissions from light-duty vehicles like cars or trucks. 

“That same poll found that cleaning up trucks is popular, too. Seven in ten voters support EPA setting stricter limits on carbon emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.

“The widespread and rapid shift to zero-emission transportation is necessary to improve lung health and save lives. Everyone deserves to breathe clean and healthy air. The Lung Association’s ‘Zeroing in on Healthy Air’ report highlights that a widespread transition to zero-emission transportation and electricity would dramatically improve health. In fact, the transition would result in up to 110,000 fewer deaths and $1.2 trillion in public health benefits across the United States by 2050.

“The Lung Association now calls on President Biden and EPA to continue its work finalizing clean air and climate protections, including strong final cleaner trucks standards, measures to ratchet down on toxic air emissions from burning coal and set much-needed limits on carbon pollution from power plants.”