Why Cleaner Cars Are Good for America

During the campaign, President-elect Trump pledged to repeal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) standards for new cars and light trucks and to gut the electric vehicle incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. Trump's choice to head the EPA, Lee Zeldin, said that his goal in that job is to "revitalize our auto industry to bring back American jobs."

But, but, but: The current combination of standards and incentives is already revitalizing the U.S. auto industry, creating jobs, and helping the country stay competitive globally. Gutting these efforts will undercut investments, put workers out of a job, and lead to higher costs for drivers-and it would also increase the pollution that causes asthma, heart attacks, and lung disease.

Trump's plans are a bad bet for America. Here's how:

• The EPA's vehicle standards, which were finalized earlier this year, are forecasted to save drivers on average $6,000 on the total cost of owning a vehicle. The savings are largely a result of much lower fuel and repair bills for electric vehicles, according to an EPA analysis. (Read more on the benefits in this report from Luke Tonachel, senior strategist for transportation.)
• These clean car rules are also a winner for the auto industry. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents the automakers, stood up at the EPA event and supported the standards when they were announced. The United Autoworkers union also gave its support.
• As the Auto Alliance noted, there is no mandate that drivers buy a certain kind of car-despite what the oil industry has tried to claim: "The rules are mindful of the importance of choice to drivers and preserves their ability to choose the vehicle that's right for them."
• These standards are also the largest single action taken to address climate change. Over the next 30 years, they would cut carbon emissions by an incredible eight billion tons, as much as the entire United States now coughs up annually.

The Inflation Reduction Act is also delivering

• In the last two years, this law's manufacturing and consumer tax credits have helped spur the announcement of nearly 300 electric vehicle, battery, and mineral processing projects across the United States, totaling more than $110 billion in new investments. The incentives have made-in-America requirements, which is leading to tens of thousands of jobs in states like Georgia, Kentucky, and Michigan. The United States has become a global leader in attracting EV- and battery-manufacturing investments.
• The law also includes consumer tax credits of up to $7,500 for vehicles manufactured in the United States-another reason domestic investments are surging. Since January 2024, more than 300,000 drivers have utilized these incentives, highlighting their popularity. The Auto Alliance sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to "preserve, or even improve" the tax credits as they are "critical to cementing the U.S. as a global leader in the future of automotive technology and manufacturing."
• Going back makes no sense, but that's just what Trump and the pro-polluter Project 2025 have vowed to do. Ending these policies would be a loser all around: raising the cost of a new vehicle for drivers-and giving our competitors a leg up to dominate the auto industry of the future, exacerbating carbon pollution, and harming our health.
• The only winner would be the oil industry, as it would keep American drivers hooked to gasoline. It's no surprise that the oil industry has made gutting these standards one of its tops asks of the Trump team.

NRDC in ready: The first Trump administration fumbled through its attempts to weaken and repeal EPA standards. Our lawyers will be ready if it tries again.

Members of Congress will also need to decide if they will go along with plans to repeal incentives, which would harm businesses, workers, and consumers in their states and districts. Business leaders and workers in those states are not going to react favorably if their elected representatives vote to end the incentives that made those investments and jobs possible.

The auto industry knows that to be competitive internationally, it needs to deliver cleaner, more economical vehicles. The United States needs to maintain the policies that are already in place; they are leading to a domestic auto industry that can thrive for decades to come.