New policy shift undermines clean air progress and deepens economic and climate inequities
Nationwide — In Black communities across the country, parents are witnessing their children struggle to breathe, feeling worried about their health and future. There are emergency room visits due to asthma attacks, and inhalers are more expensive than a tank of gas. Now, the Trump administration’s recent rollback of federal fuel-economy standards will pump even more pollution into neighborhoods that are already choking on emissions from highways and industrial facilities.
The policy locks families into years of higher gas costs and dirtier air while wealthy automakers protect their profits. Environmental justice advocates warn that it will hit frontline communities hardest and force Black families already bearing the brunt of pollution from highways, ports, and industrial facilities to choose between filling their gas tanks and filling their prescriptions, highlighting the injustice faced by vulnerable populations.
“Trump’s rollback of fuel-economy standards isn’t policy—it’s a subsidy for pollution, a costly giveaway to industries already choking our skies,” said Mustafa Santiago Ali, Senior Vice President of the National Wildlife Federation. “And as always, the bill comes due first in Black, Brown, and low-income communities whose lungs have become America’s dumping ground.”
While the administration claims the rollback will save automakers money, those savings won’t reach working families. Low-wealth families already spend 20% or more of their income on transportation compared to 12% for higher-income households. Used-car buyers will be stuck with less efficient vehicles as the policy slows the introduction of cleaner technology into the secondary market, where most low-income families buy vehicles.
The policy also threatens the clean energy economy. States and communities have invested billions in electric vehicle manufacturing, charging infrastructure, and clean transportation jobs—investments now undermined by federal policy, risking the livelihoods of workers and the future of sustainable development.
“As a lifelong educator and community advocate from a frontline community, I will not stand by while the EPA’s fuel-economy rollback jeopardizes our most vulnerable members of society, pregnant people and children, driving up preventable respiratory illnesses and forcing more students out of school,” said LaTricia Adams, Founder, CEO and President, Young, Gifted & Green. “This misguided decision also threatens the fast-growing EV market and the green jobs our neighborhoods need, leaving communities sicker and economically stalled. Americans deserve an EPA that actually does its job to protect taxpayers and families, not exposing us to more risks.”
Black communities are disproportionately located near highways and pollution sources. Studies in California find that Black and brown communities are exposed to substantially more particulate pollution than white communities. Weaker fuel standards mean more tailpipe emissions flowing directly into neighborhoods already struggling with the country’s worst air quality.
“Rolling back fuel efficiency standards isn’t pro-consumer — it’s pro-polluter. It saddles Americans with worse climate change impacts and forces them to pay more for fuel at the pump at a time that they can least afford it,” said Margie Alt, Director of the Climate Action Campaign (CAC).
Black faith leaders stressed that the rollback is not only a policy failure, but a moral one for communities of faith.
“Our faith in a new world is rooted in clean, renewable energy and lower costs for our communities, not in sacrificing families on the twin altars of profitability and greed,” said Rev. Leo Woodberry of New Alpha Community Development Corporation. “If we don’t move from a selfish consumer-based economy now, our Black children and grandchildren will have no real hope for a better world tomorrow.”
Together, faith leaders are calling on congregations and communities to stand up for clean air, climate justice, and community health.
“Black communities in this country have fought too hard for clean air and climate justice to allow this administration to sacrifice our future,” stated Dr. Ambrose Carroll Sr., senior pastor of Renewal Worship Center in Oakland and founder of Green The Church. “We are urging everyone to stand with us as we fight for our children’s future and our communities’ health. We will continue to oppose this rollback.”
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