WASHINGTON — U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.) are firing back after the Trump Administration announced its intent to roll back dozens of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations that protect air and water.
“Eliminating these protections is bad for the environment and bad for the health of Californians,” Padilla and Schiff said in a joint statement. “Donald Trump’s efforts to roll back federal clean car and truck rules are just the latest example of this Administration’s reckless policies and actions. This reversal undermines our progress on clean air and will raise prices on working families. The Trump Administration is also ceding progress on green technology to China, while undermining the major investments that U.S. companies have made in cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks.
Rolling Back Regulations
The roll backs were announced in a press release on Wednesday from EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. In addition to imposing more than $700 billion in regulatory and compliance costs and making it difficult for Americans to buy safe, affordable cars, Zeldin said the standards would increase the overall cost of living.
The EPA is also reevaluating other parts of the Biden-Harris “Clean Trucks Plan,” including the 2022 Heavy-Duty Nitrous Oxide rule, which “results in significant costs that will make the products our trucks deliver, like food and other household goods, more expensive.”
Working Families to Bear the Burden
“As a result, our economy will suffer and working families will pay the price,” the senators said. “California will continue to stand up to the Trump Administration as they weaponize the EPA and ignore science.”
Dana Guthrie is an award-winning journalist who has been featured in multiple newspapers, books and magazines across the globe. She is currently based in the Atlanta, Georgia, area.
