New York’s ambitious effort to curb climate change is facing a major test, as sweeping changes proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threaten to undermine the state’s progress and the nation’s broader renewable energy transition. On August 18, 2025, the EPA announced plans to reverse its stance on climate change, rolling back car emissions standards in line with President Donald Trump’s pledge to loosen environmental regulations. The move is poised to complicate, if not derail, New York’s 2019 climate law—which mandates a phase-out of gas vehicles by 2035 and sets aggressive targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030 and 85% by 2050.
For New York, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The state has managed to cut only about 10% of its emissions so far, with New York City’s grid still powered by more than 90% fossil fuels. Transportation accounts for a third of the state’s climate pollution, making vehicle emissions a central battleground in the fight against global warming. The EPA’s about-face comes at a critical juncture, as the state’s ability to regulate vehicle emissions is essential to meeting its climate goals.
“The Trump administration is moving our country backward, eroding decades of progress on clean air and ignoring science, threatening public health, and putting New Yorkers at risk,” said Amanda Lefton, Commissioner of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation, as reported by local news outlets. She warned that the policy shifts “will increase harmful air pollution and tailpipe emissions,” with potentially grave consequences for public health, including heightened risks for asthma, cardiovascular disease, and other respiratory ailments.
Until now, the EPA had been working in tandem with states like New York, steadily tightening car emissions standards to phase out gasoline-powered vehicles. But the new federal direction couldn’t be starker. In July, the EPA revoked its 2009 endangerment finding—the legal cornerstone that enabled the agency to regulate greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act. Without this authority, pollutants like carbon dioxide will no longer be officially recognized as threats to public health, effectively stripping away the federal government’s ability to enforce limits on greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles.
“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families,” declared EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, a former New York congressmember, in a statement. “Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission.”
The EPA is now accepting public comments on its proposed policies through September 15, 2025. But as Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, told local media, the new rules may not be finalized until 2027 and are likely to face a barrage of lawsuits. If enacted, they would prevent New York from mandating zero-emissions vehicles or phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. Automakers would be free to continue producing vehicles that emit greenhouse gases without federal restriction.
As part of its overhaul, the EPA is scrapping car emissions standards that had aimed to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 186 grams per mile by 2026—roughly the weight of a cup of sugar for every mile driven. The 2032 standard would have cut that limit by about half, equivalent to 20 packets of sugar per mile. The American Petroleum Institute, which previously challenged these standards in court, cheered the EPA’s move. “We support Administrator Zeldin’s proposal to repeal the Biden administration’s costly and unrealistic tailpipe rules, which would have effectively banned new gas-powered vehicles,” the Institute stated on its website.
But the impact goes beyond cars. The EPA is also reconsidering its rules on nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions from trucks, citing concerns about increased costs for delivered goods like food and household items. Yet, NOx is a key contributor to ground-level ozone and smog—a pressing issue for New York City, which has experienced 18 air quality advisories for ozone since June 2025, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.
“The long term impacts are more pollution in our air, so more asthma cases, more greenhouse gases,” explained Kenneth Gillingham, a professor at Yale University’s School of the Environment, in an interview with The New York Times. “If you’re concerned about climate change, we will have more climate change, but also our automakers will suddenly face incentives to keep selling gasoline cars here, making the U.S. an island in the world.”
Revoking the endangerment finding doesn’t strip New York of its right to recognize greenhouse gases as a cause of climate change or to phase out natural gas power plants and reduce building emissions—at least for now. But it does mean the loss of federal incentives and funding, including the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. Gillingham suggested that New York could respond by raising gasoline taxes and registration fees for gas-powered cars or by mandating electric vehicles for state and local government fleets. “There’s no question that if you want to deeply decarbonize an economy over time, or if you want to really try to address climate change by reducing emissions, you are going to have to reduce emissions from transportation,” he said.
The federal government’s shift has already affected New York’s climate law implementation. Since Trump took office, the state has lost funding provided by the Inflation Reduction Act for EV charging stations, resiliency efforts, and solar panels. Permits for offshore wind projects—crucial to the state’s renewable energy transition—have also been paused.
The EPA’s moves come as the Trump administration faces criticism for its broader approach to energy policy. In July 2025, the U.S. Department of Energy released a Resource Adequacy Report questioning the administration’s push to delay the renewable energy transition. The report argued that retiring old fossil fuel plants over the next five years without investing in firm baseload generation could create energy shortfalls, especially as demand surges from the growth of artificial intelligence and data centers. But EnergySage, an independent clean energy platform, countered that solar power remains the cheapest and most scalable energy source—costing $38-$78 per megawatt-hour compared to $48-$107 for gas power—and can be built and connected in less than a year, far faster than new gas or nuclear plants.
China, often cited for its reliance on coal, now gets 33% of its electricity from renewables, while the U.S. lags at 22%, according to EnergySage. Former White House adviser Kristina Costa told the platform that slashing investments in clean energy research and development “is incredibly devastating to the ability of the United States to invent, demonstrate, scale, and deploy clean energy technologies.” Ember electricity analyst Kostantsa Rangelova warned that the U.S. risks losing its place in the global clean energy transition, adding, “It’s a national risk for the U.S. to lose out on being part of that global story.”
For New Yorkers—and Americans more broadly—the battle over emissions standards and renewable energy is about more than environmental ideals. It’s about public health, economic competitiveness, and the nation’s standing in the world. As federal policies shift, states like New York are left searching for new ways to keep their climate promises alive, even as the ground beneath them keeps moving.
