We can’t let complacency undo 50 years of progress.

The Electric Vehicle Association opposes the Trump administration's proposal to rescind the scientific endangerment finding for greenhouse gases and roll back existing clean cars and trucks standards. This misguided action would inflict significant economic hardship on American families and businesses, threaten hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs, deepen our nation’s reliance on foreign oil, and severely damage the health of people in our communities.

John Higham, EVA’s Vice President of Communications and Public Affairs, shares his testimony:

“I grew up in Southern California in the 1960s — before there was an EPA. Back then, “smog” wasn’t just a word in a science textbook — it was part of daily life. The air was so polluted that schools called it “smog days,” keeping kids indoors because it was unsafe to breathe.

Truth is, Los Angeles began trying to fight air pollution as far back as 1947, but it wasn’t until 1970, when President Nixon signed the Clean Air Act and created the EPA, that real progress began.

The results speak for themselves. By 1980 — the first year with consistent data after the EPA’s creation — the South Coast Air Basin recorded 102 Stage-1 smog alerts in Los Angeles County. That’s roughly 1 in 3 days when the air was dangerously polluted.

Today? Stage-1 alerts have essentially disappeared. And that happened despite the number of cars in the region more than doubling, and the number of miles driven increasing by 60%. We have cleaner air with more cars on the road because clean vehicle standards work.

The irony — and the danger — is that this success means many Americans have forgotten what it’s like to live with truly dirty air. We can’t let that complacency undo 50 years of progress.

Some will say these standards are too costly. But in more than five decades, no automaker has been put out of business because of clean air rules. In fact, U.S. standards are less stringent than those in many other developed nations — markets where these same companies already compete successfully. Strong standards drive innovation. Weak standards drive stagnation.

And make no mistake: if the United States backs away from leadership in clean vehicle technology, other nations — especially China — will fill the gap. China has already overtaken us in producing affordable, competitive clean vehicles. Rolling back standards doesn’t just risk our air — it risks our economic leadership.

The EPA was created because dirty air was making Americans sick. Your mission is to protect human health and the environment. That mission has saved lives. It has worked. And it’s still working.

Don’t turn back the clock. Don’t give our clean air away. Keep strong clean vehicle standards in place — for our health, our climate, and our economy.”