Minnesotans spoke up in support of maintaining federal vehicle emissions standards.
In July 2025, the Trump Administration and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the EPA was proposing a rulemaking to strip out greenhouse gas (GHG) emission requirements from federal vehicle emissions standards for passenger vehicles and commercial medium- and heavy-duty vehicles.
These standards had just been updated in 2024 (with support from the auto industry) to their most stringent version that would have seen over seven billion tons of GHG emissions avoided across the next three decades alongside improved air quality and consumer savings from cleaner, more efficient, and cheaper-to-operate cars, vans, trucks, and buses.
Instead, an analysis completed by Energy Innovation shows should the EPA eliminate its vehicle emissions standards, then U.S. households will see up to $310 billion in costs and a loss of up to 110,000 jobs annually over the next 25 years, alongside an estimated 700 premature deaths annually from increased pollution.
The EPA also proposed rescinding its 2009 Endangerment Finding that affirmed the harm of climate emissions and paved the way for the EPA to set GHG standards for new cars, vans, trucks, and buses — despite mountains of additional evidence since, as well as our lived reality — confirming that extreme heat, floods, and wildfires caused by climate change are harming our health and communities. Learn more about the EPA’s proposal and the Endangerment finding in our blog post.
This proposal needs to go through a formal rulemaking to become reality, which is why Fresh Energy’s Transportation team knew it was imperative to get on the record. Fresh Energy launched an Action Alert tool that funneled public comments about this proposal straight to the EPA, and more than 80 Minnesotans used that tool to make their voice heard.
Fresh Energy also collaborated with the Coalition for Clean Transportation (CCT), which includes The Alliance, CURE, Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate, MN350, and Sierra Club North Star Chapter, to file formal comments urging the proposal to be rejected, keeping the current greenhouse gas standards for vehicle emissions in place, stating, “Repealing the greenhouse gas standards would make achieving our state’s climate goals difficult, if not impossible, alongside the resulting detrimental impacts to public health.”
Fresh Energy and our partners were part of a national effort spanning nonprofits, states, and the general public to denounce and push back on this illogical and damaging proposal. Over 600 people spoke out against the proposed action at a series of public hearings the EPA held at the end of August, and over 100 nonprofits – including Fresh Energy and CCT partners – signed a joint letter calling on the EPA to “do its job” and maintain strong climate and pollution vehicle emissions standards. State attorneys general and federal lawmakers also urged the EPA to reconsider and drop its proposal.
While the federal administration’s current set of actions goes further down the path of climate denial and fossil fuel favoritism than ever, Fresh Energy and our many partners across the state and U.S. are ready to fight back. We’re tracking this issue closely and will post updates as we learn more.
