May 2, 2025

United States Senate

Washington, DC 20510

Re: Oppose any legislation to eliminate tailpipe pollution limits on cars and trucks, including the illegitimate S.J. Res. 45, 46, and 47

Dear Senator:

The League of Conservation V oters (LCV) believes that everyone has a right to clean air, clean water, public lands, and a safe climate protected by a just and equitable democracy. Each year, LCV publishes the National Environmental Scorecard, which details the voting records of members of Congress on environmental legislation.The Scorecard is distributed to LCV members, concerned voters nationwide, and the media.

LCV urges you to vote NO on any legislation that would eliminate tailpipe pollution standards for cars and trucks. This includes, but is not limited to, the illegitimate Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions of disapproval to eliminate the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) waivers for the Advanced Clean Trucks (ACT), Advanced Clean Cars II (ACC II), and Heavy-Duty Vehicle Omnibus (HDO) rules. These resolutions (S.J. Res. 45, 46, and 47) attempt to block the state preemption waivers provided to California by the EPA under the Clean Air Act.

Eliminating these waivers would undermine critical cleaner vehicle standards that help to reduce health-harming transportation pollution, reduce the cost of operating a car or truck, and address the climate crisis. Furthermore, without these waivers, U.S. automakers would be dissuaded from investing in domestic manufacturing for cleaner cars and trucks to stay competitive in the global market. Illegally attempting to use the CRA to eliminate the waivers granted to one state would also open the floodgates for other illegitimate attempts to remove other state waivers, such as the hundreds provided to states for various portions of Medicaid, SNAP, or K-12 education using a similar, using the precedent set by this illegitimate use of the CRA.

For nearly 50 years, the Clean Air Act has granted California the ability to set cleaner vehicle standards that meet or exceed the federal standards because they had and continue to have such unique and challenging air quality problems. Other states with challenging air pollution also are allowed to follow California’s standards, and around a dozen have done so, helping clean their air and deliver more cost-saving vehicle choices for their residents and businesses, too. Attacking California’s Clean Air Act authority or waivers would subsequently damage these states’ clean air efforts as well.

Cleaning up cars and trucks is essential to cleaning up our air and reducing associated health problems like asthma and mitigating climate change. Cars and trucks are a major source of health-harming pollutants like particulate matter (PM) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) that also form smog. Exposure to these pollutants increases health problems like asthma attacks, strokes, heart disease, cancer, and premature death.

Cleaner cars and trucks standards also help to expand consumer choice by building an expanded marketplace of more fuel-efficient vehicles and more drivetrain options. According to Consumer Reports, efficiency and emissions standards for cars have delivered $9,000 in fuel savings to consumers when fueling up their vehicle. Eliminating these standards would not only block these savings – it would make vehicles more than $8,000 more expensive to fuel compared to if existing standards stay in place.

Attempts to block cleaner cars and truck standards (e.g. S.J. Res. 45, 46, and 47) will risk billions of dollars of investments in hundreds of job-creating factories– primarily in areas like North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Arizona. U.S. companies led the world auto industry for a century, and they should be leading the global cleaner vehicle transition that is now underway. Eliminating these standards will cause irreparable harm to domestic manufacturing and leave the U.S. behind in the global economy.

We urge you to REJECT all legislation, including S.J. Res. 45, S.J. Res. 46, and S.J. Res. 47, that seeks to eliminate California’s and subsequently, a dozen other states’, cleaner cars and trucks standards, which would harm their efforts to clean the air and save drivers and businesses money. We will strongly consider including vote(s) on this legislation in the 2025 Scorecard. If you would like more information, please contact a member of our government relations team.

Sincerely,

Pete Maysmith

President