Groups oppose looming EPA rollback of vehicle criteria emissions limits

Source: By Inside EPA • Posted: Monday, January 19, 2026

Dozens of environmental and public health groups are expressing “unequivocal opposition” to any EPA’s move to “weaken, pause or delay” criteria pollution standards or related “warranty and minimum useful life” requirements for vehicles, signaling an intensified fight about EPA’s expected rule rollbacks.

“EPA’s leadership in reducing toxic, health, and air quality harming pollutants is all the more important now, given the attempts to prevent California and other states from enforcing the most recent vehicle standards, including those for criteria pollutants — which we maintain is illegal and unconscionable,” write 75 environmental, public health, and consumer groups in a Jan. 14 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. The letter comes as the Trump administration appears poised to issue proposals that would result in higher criteria pollution in both light- and heavy-duty vehicles, a topic that EPA deprioritized last year in favor of its aggressive push to scuttle the 2009 greenhouse gas endangerment finding and related vehicle GHG standards.

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