Sacramento, CA…Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued the following statement on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to weaken clean vehicle emissions standards: “Watch out for this belated April Fools’ Day trick. This cynical and meretricious abuse of power will poison our air and jeopardize the health of all Americans.”

The U.S. EPA’s own analysis shows the national clean car standards benefit all consumers by reducing fuel costs and the environment by reducing greenhouse gas pollution.

Last year, Governor Brown wrote a letter to U.S. EPA Administrator Pruitt calling President Trump’s decision to review emissions standards for cars “an unconscionable gift to polluters” that “put the interests of big oil ahead of clean air and politics ahead of science.”

California also previously intervened in a lawsuit filed by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The lawsuit challenged the U.S. EPA’s January 2017 determination that the vehicle emission standards for years 2022 to 2025 are feasible.

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