Clean Cars Standards benefit Minnesotans across the state! Learn more about how all Minnesotans can be part of a clean energy and transportation future.
What is a Minnesota Clean Cars Standard?
A Minnesota Clean Cars Standard will ensure that all cars and trucks sold in Minnesota produce less climate and air pollution and meet higher efficiency standards. It will also require Minnesota auto dealers to sell more models of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids.
With a Clean Cars Standard, Minnesota, along with fourteen other states, will be leading the way to protect the land and water we love and the health of all Minnesotans. It will save Minnesotans money, provide more vehicle choice, and grow our state’s economy.
Rural Minnesotans have a lot to gain from a Clean Cars Standard.
A Clean Cars Standard will benefit all Minnesotans, especially those in rural communities. People in rural places often live further away from jobs, stores, and healthcare providers, and end up driving more to get to work and perform daily errands. Having more options for cars and trucks with lower emissions and having more electric vehicle options will directly benefit them the most with significant everyday cost savings. Rural Minnesotans are pulling together to ensure that they are included in an equitable clean transportation future.
Cars and trucks are Minnesota’s #1 source of climate pollution.
Rural Minnesotans want and need to be part of the solution to our climate crisis. Transit options are limited in rural communities; reducing climate pollution from cars and trucks is vital. We also want to protect Minnesota’s ecosystems that we know and love and that are threatened by a changing climate.
Air Quality & Health
Even in rural places, poor air quality is an issue. This is an often-overlooked reason why strong auto emission standards are needed in Minnesota. A 2019 report from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and the Minnesota Department of Health found that rates of death attributable to air pollution were higher in rural areas than cities and was particularly bad in southern Minnesota and along the state’s border with South Dakota.
Electric vehicles will save Minnesotans money.
Electricity has a lower and less volatile price point than gasoline, and electric vehicles do not require oil changes and many other types of vehicle maintenance. On average, rural Minnesota drivers could save $750 by switching from gasoline to electricity.
More vehicle choice.
Finding and purchasing an electric vehicle in rural communities is virtually impossible right now. A variety of car and truck options that serve family and daily are needed.
6 in 10 prospective car buyers in Minnesota have some interest in purchasing an electric vehicle.
Rural Clean Cars Stories –
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Rural Minnesotans want to be included in the energy future –
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“It only makes sense to put the highest mileage vehicles where we drive the most miles, rural Minnesota, and the MPCA Clean Car Standard would do just that. The Chevy Volt is a plug-in hybrid with a battery for commuter length trips and a gasoline engine for longer trips. It’s not an expensive luxury car. We bought it because it was affordable, and we needed a dependable car that gets us where we need to go at a very low cost.”
– Pete Kennedy, Murdock