President Donald Trump’s withdrawal from the country’s blank car systems is costing lives and jobs in Iowa, local and environmentalists in eastern Iowa said Thursday.
Kurth said Trump first prevented states from restricting vehicle emissions more than the federal government, and then reassured himself of the Clean Air Act’s criteria on the COVID-19 pandemic. The resolution was part of a broader replacement of environmental policies under Trump, prompting legal challenges.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency He said adjustments are expected to save 1,000 lives a year by encouraging Americans to buy new, less expensive, and safer cars, while saving the auto industry $253 billion in regulatory prices through 2029.
When Trump’s management finalized cancellations last March, industry teams representing major automakers said the president would possibly have gone too far, encouraging lengthy legal battles that would leave the industry in limbo, the New York Times reported. Some automakers had asked for smaller cuts.
Scott County supervisor Ken Croken said the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that blank car technologies can create more than 7,000 jobs in Iowa. That’s in Scott County, where unemployment is 9.8 percent and has been double digits, Croken added.
Rolling back the vehicle emissions standards discourages the development of efficient vehicles that have saved Quad Cities families $2,000 a year, Croken said. That money could help the economy, including farming, which has been harmed as international markets dwindled, he added.
Last year, Ford and Honda Motor Co. sided with California in their fight to restrict emissions, Forbes reported. General Motors and Toyota Motor Corp. have joined Trump in supporting the changes.
Rick Theilen, owner of Theilen Auto Sales in Clear Lake and president of the Iowa Independent Auto Dealer Association, said Obama-era power goals seemed unattainable for brands and a monetary trap for dealers. “They were too strict,” Theilen said. “It was almost for it to work.”
Theilen said regulations can simply verify dealers’ relationships with customers, who blame the user selling the car for the maximum prices. “We didn’t control any of this,” Theilen said of power criteria and similar federal laws.
In the meantime, a debate is taking place on fitness.
The American Lung Association reports that burning fossil fuels is the main cause of small waste that damages Americans’ lungs. Nationally, 34,000 premature deaths a year can be prevented even with modest relief in emissions, the nonprofit estimated.
The Lung Association recently awarded Scott County a “C” for ozone pollution. Polk County received a “B” and Linn County Received a “C”
Dr. Maureen McCue, president of Iowa’s bankruptcy of Doctors for Social Responsibility, said weakening emissions limits the coronavirus pandemic and that at a time when climate change poses new threats “it is especially harmful and meaningless.”
Tyler Granger, Iowa’s box representative for the National Wildlife Federation, said poisonous vehicle emissions also damage wildlife, the habitat of pollinators critical to crops and other plants, and can harm birds and other species.
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