Trump’s Wrong Turn on Clean Cars: The Effects of Fuel Efficiency Rollbacks on the Climate, Car Companies and California
Date:
Tuesday, October 29, 2019 - 10:00am
Location:
2154 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515
Trump’s Wrong Turn on Clean Cars: The Effects of Fuel Efficiency Rollbacks on the Climate, Car Companies and California
Subcommittees:
CHAIRMAN ROUDA'S OPENING STATEMENT
PURPOSE
- The hearing will examine the health and environmental impacts of the proposal to freeze Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas emissions standards at 2020 levels, rolling back the Obama Administration’s guidelines that would increase standards to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
- The Subcommittee will probe the fossil fuel industry’s influence over the regulatory decision-making process at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) under President Trump and will also address the consequences of revoking California’s legal right to set more stringent tailpipe emissions standards.
BACKGROUND
- A clean cars rollback would have negative health, environmental, and economic impacts. For example, in October 2018, dozens of public health organizations sent a letter to the EPA and NHTSA, stating that the Administration’s proposed rollback would result in “an overall increase in particulate pollution and sulfur dioxide emissions.”
- Although the Trump administration has claimed its proposed rule would lead to fewer traffic fatalities, experts like Dr. Antonio Bento, who will testify at the hearing, have analyzed the regulatory record behind these statements and found the Administration relied on “cherry-picked” data to reach these conclusions.
- The Trump Administration’s announced revocation of California’s waiver was seen by many, including California officials, to be another example of President Trump using the EPA to retaliate against political adversaries. Governor Newsom remarked that the President’s decision to revoke the waiver was “reckless and politically motivated.”
WITNESSES
Panel One
The Honorable Edmund Brown, Jr.
Former Governor of California
The Honorable Sheldon Whitehouse
U.S. Senator from Rhode Island
Panel Two
Dr. Antonio Bento
Professor of Public Policy and Economics
Sol Price School of Public Policy and Department of Economics
University of Southern California
The Honorable Samuel Liccardo
Mayor of San Jose, California
Dr. Emily Wimberger
Climate Economist
Rhodium Group
Dr. Marlo Lewis (Minority Witness)
Senior Fellow
Competitive Enterprise Institute
DOCUMENTS
- Memo
- Hearing Notice
- HHRG-116-GO28-20191029-MbrRoster.pdf
- Chairman Rouda UC - 17 automakers’ June 6, 2019 letter to President Trump
- Chairman Rouda UC - EPA Final Determination on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards, January 2017
- Chairman Rouda UC - “Flawed analyses of U.S. auto fuel economy standards,” Science, by Antonio Bento et al.
- Chairman Rouda UC - American Lung Association “State of the Air” report, 2019
- Hearing Transcript
VOTES
Issues:
116th Congress