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For Immediate Release
January, 29 2025, 11:16am EDT
Contact:
Larisa Manescu, larisa.manescu@sierraclub.org
Sean Duffy Seeks to Make Vehicles Less Efficient, More Expensive
As one of his first acts after being confirmed by the Senate as Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy signed a memo to direct a reconsideration and indicate his support for a rollback of national fuel economy standards that make vehicles– including cars, light-duty trucks, and heavy-duty trucks– more fuel efficient.
NHTSA’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy Standards, known as CAFE standards,set requirements for how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel. NHTSA is charged with reducing America's reliance on oil and saving drivers money at the pump. A strong CAFE standard can help the U.S. substantially reduce our dependence on oil over the long term.
Eliminating this program will cost consumers more money at the pump. Consumer Reports’ Q4 2024 survey showed two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) agree that the U.S. government should continue to increase fuel economy standards.
In response, Katherine García, director of the Sierra Club's Clean Transportation for All campaign, released the following statement:
“These common-sense, popular fuel economy standards save drivers money at the pump and reduce dangerous pollution from vehicles. Drivers spend excessive amounts of money to fuel their cars, and it’s often a large part of household expenses. Wasting no time at all as the new Transportation Secretary, Sean Duffy is selling American families out to Big Oil, burdening us with higher fuel prices and more polluting gas-guzzlers that harm our health.”
The Sierra Club is the most enduring and influential grassroots environmental organization in the United States. We amplify the power of our 3.8 million members and supporters to defend everyone's right to a healthy world.
(415) 977-5500LATEST NEWS
Dozens Feared Dead After Passenger Jet and US Military Helicopter Collide
One analyst described the catastrophic incident as "a tragedy that will change aviation."
Jan 30, 2025
This is a developing news story... Please check back for possible updates...
Hundreds of rescue workers continued to scour the Potomac River in dangerously cold conditions Thursday morning after a regional jet operated by an American Airlines subsidiary collided in midair with a Blackhawk military helicopter that was on a training exercise.
The plane, a Bombardier CRJ700, was carrying 60 passengers and four crew members, according to American Airlines. The jet departed from Witchita, Kansas and was approaching the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) in Washington, D.C. at the time of the collision Wednesday night. Three soldiers were in the helicopter, the U.S. Army said.
The direct flight from Witchita's Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport to Reagan National has only been offered for a year, and lawmakers have warned that the Washington, D.C. airport's operational capacity is overwhelmed.
Around 30 bodies have reportedly been recovered from the Potomac thus far, according to local news outlets, and no survivors have been found.
The circumstances of the disastrous collision will be the subject of investigations for months to come. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is currently without an administrator, said it would probe the incident alongside the National Transportation Safety Board.
After the White House issued a statement indicating that President Donald Trump had been fully briefed on the incident, he proceeded to bloviate on social media.
"On his second day in office, as part of his careless-or-intentional destruction of the institutions that have made the United States strong and safe, Donald Trump disbanded a group called the Aviation Security Advisory Committee."
The Associated Pressreported that "a few minutes before the jet was to land, air traffic controllers asked American Airlines Flight 5342 if it could land on a shorter runway and the pilots agreed."
"Controllers cleared the jet to land and flight tracking sites showed the plane adjust its approach to the new runway," the outlet continued. "Less than 30 seconds before the crash, an air traffic controller asked a helicopter if it had the arriving plane in sight. The controller made another radio call to the helicopter moments later: 'PAT 25 pass behind the CRJ.' There was no reply. Seconds after that, the two aircraft collided."
Pete Muntean, CNN's aviation correspondent, called the collision "a tragedy that will change aviation."
Profoundly true take from CNN aviation correspondent @PeteMunteen at 1002pm Eastern: "This clearly, Abby, will be a tragedy that will change aviation. Mark my words now. You are looking now at the incredible response there on the shores of the Potomac River...This is really… pic.twitter.com/SREUpc7fHP
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) January 30, 2025
The incident led some observers to more closely scrutinize recent actions by the new Trump administration, which has moved to axe the federal workforce—amid a shortage of air-traffic controllers—and enact sweeping cuts to government initiatives.
"On his second day in office, as part of his careless-or-intentional destruction of the institutions that have made the United States strong and safe, Donald Trump disbanded a group called the Aviation Security Advisory Committee," journalist and pilot James Fallows wrote Thursday. "This casually punitive gesture had the potential of undermining everything that had made U.S. aviation safety the marvel of the world. It was collaborative; it combined public, private, military, civilian, academic, and other institutions to pool knowledge; it avoided blame; but it focused relentlessly on lessons learned. You can see a list of its members here."
"Destroying this institution probably won't make a difference this week. Or this month. Or maybe even this year," Fallows added. "But in the long run, someday, it will be part of an erosion of safety—part of the thoughtless destruction of the taken-for-granted institutions that have made modern [aviation] as safe as it is. That dismantling order, one week ago, wasn't part of tonight's tragedy—whose specific origins no one knows, as I write. But unless reversed, it will be part of tragedies in the future."
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'Catastrophic Blow': GOP and Three Democrats Confirm Zeldin for EPA
"This dangerous agenda that Zeldin will oversee will roll back vital pollution limits that protect us, abandon clean energy investments, and lock the country into reliance on dirty, expensive fossil fuels," said one campaigner.
Jan 29, 2025
Climate and public health advocates were outraged on Wednesday after a trio of U.S. Senate Democrats
voted with Republicans to confirm President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, former New York Congressman Lee Zeldin.
Critics have warned that Zeldin—like other Cabinet nominees—will serve billionaire polluters, not the American people and the planet, since Trump named him in November. They renewed those warnings after Democratic Sens. John Fetterman (Pa.), Ruben Gallego (Ariz.), and Mark Kelly (Ariz.) voted with Republicans to confirm him as EPA administrator.
After Zeldin's confirmation, the youth-led Sunrise Movement called him "a disaster for our planet and a win for Big Oil."
Climate Action Campaign director Margie Alt said in a statement that "Lee Zeldin's confirmation as EPA administrator is a catastrophic blow to the health of Americans, the climate, and the economy. Under Zeldin's leadership, the Environmental Protection Agency will no longer protect the American people and our communities—it will protect polluters."
Pointing to the new administrator's record and public statements, Alt said that "this dangerous agenda that Zeldin will oversee will roll back vital pollution limits that protect us, abandon clean energy investments, and lock the country into reliance on dirty, expensive fossil fuels that cost families at the gas pump."
"Americans didn't vote for dirtier air, more asthma attacks, or rising healthcare costs, yet that is exactly what Zeldin's EPA will deliver. Vulnerable communities, especially children, and seniors will bear the brunt of these policies, while a few fossil fuel executives rake in profits," she continued. "Zeldin's confirmation is a tragic failure for all Americans."
Marc Yaggi, CEO of Waterkeeper Alliance, declared that "this is a make-or-break moment for clean water, and the American people deserve leadership that puts their needs above the influence of corporate polluters."
While praising Zeldin's past rejection of offshore oil drilling and support for "sensible policies" on "forever chemicals," Yaggi said that "his history of voting against critical infrastructure and environmental funding and opposing clean water and air protections raises serious concerns about his commitment to effectively leading the Environmental Protection Agency."
Moms Clean Air Force suggested a rebrand for the EPA under Zeldin and Trump: Extreme Pollution Agency.
Since returning to the White House just 10 days ago, Trump has already
taken various executive actions to attack the planet.
"The EPA's stated mission is to protect human health and the environment," Sierra Club legislative director Melinda Pierce said. "In the wake of Donald Trump's dangerous executive orders and illegal push to freeze all federal funding, the new EPA administrator will face a decision of whether to carry out the necessary duties of the role, or fold to Trump's deadly fossil fuel-backed agenda and broken promises."
"The American people want to breathe clean air and drink clean water," she stressed. "They want a healthy environment for their families today and the future generations of tomorrow. And they want to know that their government is doing everything in its power to protect them from the destructive impacts of the climate crisis that we sadly witness more and more of each day. That is now Lee Zeldin's charge, and we will do everything in our power to hold him accountable to the American people."
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Teachers Unions Blast Trump Plan to 'Steal Money' From Public Schools for Vouchers
"Every student deserves fully funded neighborhood public schools that give them a sense of belonging and prepare them with the lessons and life skills they need to follow their dreams and reach their full potential."
Jan 29, 2025
Leaders of the nation's two largest teachers unions on Wednesday sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order that would direct federal funding toward enabling families to send their children to private rather than public K-12 schools.
Before the White House released the order Wednesday evening, multiple media outlets obtained and reported on related documents and Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on Fox News that Trump intended to sign that order and others.
In response to reporting on Trump's order promoting "school choice," as right-wing advocates call it, the National Education Association (NEA)—the largest U.S. teachers union, representing over 3 million workers— released a statement lambasting the president's plan to "steal money from public school students to fund private school vouchers."
NEA president Becky Pringle declared that "every student deserves fully funded neighborhood public schools that give them a sense of belonging and prepare them with the lessons and life skills they need to follow their dreams and reach their full potential. Instead of stealing taxpayer money to fund private schools, we should focus on public schools—where 90% of children, and 95% of children with disabilities, in America, attend—not take desperately needed funds away from them. If we are serious about doing what is best for students, let's reduce class sizes to give our students more one-on-one attention and increase salaries to address the teacher and staff shortages."
"The bottom line is vouchers have been a catastrophic failure everywhere they have been tried," she continued. "President Trump is using his Project 2025 playbook to privatize education because he knows vouchers have repeatedly been a failure in Congress. Parents, educators, and voters know what students need—and vouchers are never the solution. In fact, when voters have a say about vouchers, they have been soundly rejected—time and again—at the ballot box. Just this past November, voters in Colorado, Kentucky, and Nebraska overwhelmingly said no to vouchers."
"We know vouchers take money away from neighborhood public schools. We know students with disabilities depend on these same public schools. We know that voucher programs leave out wide swaths of students, especially Black and brown students as well as those living in rural areas with no or limited access to private schools. And we know this stunt is meaningless without the consent of Congress," she said. "So, we are putting all anti-public education politicians on notice: If you try to come for our students, for our schools, and for our communities, NEA members will mobilize and will defeat vouchers again."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which has 1.8 million members, similarly stressed that "Americans of all political stripes want safe and welcoming public schools where kids are engaged and have the knowledge and skills to thrive in careers, college, and life. This plan is a direct attack on all that parents and families hold dear; it's a ham-fisted, recycled, and likely illegal scheme to diminish choice and deny classrooms resources to pay for tax cuts for billionaires."
"We already know that vouchers go mostly to wealthy families whose kids are already in private school. This order hijacks federal money used to level the playing field for poor and disadvantaged kids and hands it directly to unaccountable private operators—a tax cut for the rich," she explained. "It diminishes community schools and the services they provide. It dilutes crucial literacy and arts education grants. It takes an ax to the Department of Defense schools that are a global model for student success. It weakens Bureau of Indian Education schools already struggling due to underfunding and neglect."
Specifically, according to CBS News, "the executive order directs the secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, to submit a plan to Mr. Trump for how military families can use Defense Department funds to send their kids to the school of their choosing."
"More broadly, it directs the Department of Education to prioritize school choice programs through its discretionary grant programs, and orders the Department of Health and Human Services to issue guidance on how states receiving block grants for families and children can use those funds to support private and faith-based institutions," the outlet reported.
CBS added:
The executive order also directs the Department of Education to issue guidance to states on how to use federal funding formulas—which determine how much money to allocate to districts and schools—to support their K-12 scholarship programs.
The interior secretary, when confirmed, must also submit a plan to the president outlining how families with students at Bureau of Indian Education schools can use federal money to send those children to a school of their family's choosing. About 47,000 American Indian and Alaska Native students are enrolled in Bureau of Indian Education schools.
Like Pringle, Weingarten highlighted that "voters overwhelmingly rejected billionaire-backed voucher scams in November—even in states Trump won—because they know vouchers hurt student achievement, bankrupt state budgets, and deny opportunity to rural and urban communities."
"They spurned extremist school board candidates and opted again and again for levies and ballot initiatives to improve public schools," she said. "While this order will succeed in uniting parents and educators in a righteous effort to defend public schools, it is unfortunate that we have to spend time fighting for—rather than strengthening—the institutions 90% of American kids attend."
The union leaders' comments came just hours after the National Assessment of Educational Progress released data on student performance in mathematics and reading for 2024—which Weingarten responded to by saying: "We don't need stagnant NAEP scores to show us the headwinds children are facing, regardless of whether they attend public or private school. Rather than waiting for lagging indicators such as NAEP, AFT members are fighting every day for 'real solutions' to create safe, welcoming, and joyful schools that engage kids and close the achievement gap between the lowest and highest performers."
Trump's order and the related backlash also came after the president said on his Truth Social platform Tuesday afternoon: "Congratulations to Tennessee Legislators who are working hard to pass School Choice this week, which I totally support. We will very soon be sending Education BACK TO THE STATES, where it belongs. It is our goal to bring Education in the United States to the highest level, one that it has never attained before. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!"
Trump has repeatedly teased fully dismantling the federal Department of Education, but he has also nominated its potential next leader: scandal-plagued former World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Linda McMahon. She still needs to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans.
In addition to the measure that will shift money toward private schools, Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order "eliminating federal funding or support for illegal and discriminatory treatment and indoctrination in K-12 schools, including based on gender ideology and discriminatory equity ideology," and "protecting parental rights."
As LawDork's Chris Geidner summarized, the latter measure "attempts to restrict all schools that receive federal funds from protecting trans and nonbinary students or supporting diversity measures, while at the same time purporting to advance 'patriotic education.'"
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