Dozens of Public Interest Groups Send Letter to Trump EPA to Oppose Weakening Health-Protective Vehicle Standards

(Washington, D.C. – January 14, 2026) Today 75 health, environmental and consumer groups, with local governments representing tens of millions of Americans, sent a letter to Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin stating unequivocal opposition to any weakening or delaying of protections against dangerous air pollution from new vehicles.  

EPA is expected to soon issue proposals to weaken standards for soot and smog-forming pollution from light-duty vehicles (cars, passenger trucks and SUVs) and the nitrogen oxides (NOx) standards for heavy-duty vehicles (trucks and buses). Any rollback or weakening of those standards would have serious health and environmental consequences. 

The groups’ letter notes that tailpipe emissions are a significant source of pollutants including NOx, particulate matter (PM2.5), non-methane organic gas and volatile organic compounds – pollutants that are linked to asthma and other lung diseases, heart disease and premature death. The groups specifically oppose any attacks on EPA’s 2024 rule that will reduce particulates and NOx from light-duty vehicles beginning with model year 2027 cars and passenger trucks, and EPA’s 2022 rule that will significantly cut NOx from commercial vehicles like delivery vans, garbage trucks, buses and long-haul trucks starting with model year 2027.  

These threatened standards would prevent: 

• 50,000 premature deaths
• 85,000 hospital and ER visits
• 25 million asthma attacks 

“We urge EPA to keep existing standards in place, so that communities across the country can benefit … Any rollback would lead directly to increased hospitalization rates, lost work and school days, and thousands of preventable deaths,” the letter states. “Our communities expect EPA, under your leadership, to prioritize its mission: to protect human health and the environment. That mission is currently under threat. We urge you to reject calls from industry groups to delay or dismantle critical clean air protections.” 

The letter also highlights that technology is readily available to meet the standards, with some manufacturers already producing vehicles that do. 

Weakening the health protections would add to other damaging actions the administration has taken to make our nation’s vehicles dirtier and less efficient. For instance, the Trump administration is also in the final stages of a rule that is expected to overturn the Endangerment Finding – the bedrock scientific determination that climate pollution harms public health and welfare – as well as all the climate pollution limits for cars and trucks that EPA has ever adopted.  The administration has also proposed a new rule that would substantially weaken the nation’s fuel economy standards – an action that would waste gas, cost American families money, and put more pollution in the air we breathe. And the administration announced this week that it would no longer consider the health impacts and resulting economic costs of some of the deadliest air pollutants.

Read the entire letter here.