In America: Cancer or Cheaper tires? H.J. Res. 61 and the Republican effort to curb the Clean Air Act
Nickolas Nikolic
While President Trump’s “America First” plan seeks to put America above all, has the administration forgotten about Americans?
House Joint Resolution 61 – or HJ Res. 61 for short - sponsored by Congressman Morgan Griffith (R-VA), was voted on and passed in both houses. It has attracted the ire of Environmental Activists and Democrats alike, but what does this controversial bill seek to do? To understand this, one must look further back in time, to 1963, when under President JFK’s rule, the US first introduced the Clean Air Act (CAA), the first major legislative stride in environmental protection. However, due to his assassination, the act was ultimately signed by his successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was later amended in 1990 to encompass more regulation to protect the environment.
Since then, the bill has been tweaked and changed, sometimes for the better, and sometimes for the worse. However, in November 2024, under President Joe Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), tightened manufacturing standards for rubber tires. Rubber tires, are used by all motor vehicles, be they electric or fossil fuel based. They are also one of the most energy intensive and carbon emitting manufacturing processes. Although grown in farms, rubber used in tires is mostly synthetic. On average, it takes about 28 Liters (7 gallons) of oil to make a single tire for a car. This number goes up for bigger tires used on larger vehicle. Moreover, additives like silica, carbon, and sulfur, which are used to improve the integrity of tires are also known toxic pollutants.
To curb the amount of such pollutants released into the air, the Biden-era bill sought to impose strict regulations on how much carbon, and Hydrocarbons can be released into the air as a by-product of tire manufacturing in the US. The previous government wanted to regulate the rubber tire manufacturing industry using the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP). This would have come into effect by November 2027. However, thanks to the 20 House Republicans who co-sponsored Rep. Griffith’s bill, these regulations may never see the light of day.
Why Is It Essential To Regulate Tire Manufacturing?
Setting aside the November 2024 bill that has been repealed by US Congress, the last time the tire manufacturing industry was properly regulated was in 2002. This was a Clinton-era bill from October 2000 that came into effect under the Bush-led White House of 2002. However, the bill was finalized in 2003 and did not come into effect until July 2005. This means that the tire manufacturing industry’s practices have not been scrutinized for over 2 decades. Roughly 21 million Americans were not born the last time Congress regulated tire manufacturing.
Despite the 2008 recession and the pandemic in 2020, Car manufacturing and sales in the US have consistently been between 10 and 15 million cars per year. And each car needs a minimum of 5 tires, spare included. All in all, roughly 335 million tires were manufactured in 2022, with 216 million replacements. So, it is no surprise that the tire industry has also seen significant sales, and a valuation of nearly 25 billion dollars as an industry. Profits and valuations aside, rubber tires are so rampant that roughly 6 million metric tons of tire dust end up in the ocean, even in the most remote of places like the Arctic. Non exhaust emissions, like dust kicked up by tire and road wear, accounts for 90% of all particulate vehicular emissions. Unfortunately, all the pollution mitigated by using electric vehicles may as well never have been done, as they emit nearly double the tire dust as fossil fuel vehicles because of how heavy they are.
The Economics Of The Situation
China, America’s biggest competitor in the manufacturing industry currently manufactures the biggest share of the world’s tires, at 35%. In 2022, the US imported nearly $5 billion worth of tires from China, that is nearly a fourth of its tire requirements.
Data Source - United States International Trade Commission (USITC)Under the Clean Air Act, tire manufacturing in the US was regulated by NESHAP. These regulations do not directly affect where tires are manufactured but influence production costs, potentially encouraging some companies to shift manufacturing to countries with less stringent environmental standards, such as Thailand or Vietnam. It so happens that these countries are also bigger polluters than the US. This is just the latest in a long line of examples of rich first world countries exporting their manufacturing, and thereby, their pollution to poorer third world countries with less regulation, and cheaper labor.
The production of natural rubber, which constitutes about 19% of tire composition, is linked to deforestation in Southeast Asia and Africa, driven by the need for agricultural space to grow rubber trees. Synthetic rubber, making up 24% of tires and derived from petroleum, further contributes to fossil fuel depletion and climate-harming emissions. Per the EPA’s reports, the pollution from rubber tire manufacturing disproportionately affects communities near facilities, with 516,000 people living within 5 km of these plants, 24% Black and 21% below poverty, above national averages.
To be fair to the likes of Goodyear and Bridgestone, tire manufacturing is a business, one that seeks to make a profit. And regulations like NESHAP cost money. The federal register estimates that the cost of implementing the NESHAP is around 13.3 million dollars per year for existing manufacturers. However, for an industry whose profits are in the multiple billions, surely 13 million per year to mitigate health risks for those around their factories is a drop in the bucket?
Data Source - Dr Edwin PangThe Congressional Debate On The Matter
However, Rep. Griffith, the main sponsor of this bill believes that this form of regulation threatens the jobs of his many constituents who work at the Yokohama tire plant within his district’s boundaries. Should the people who breathe the dirty air from the plant also have their jobs be held hostage by a multi-billion-dollar corporation?
“I urge all Members to join me in voting in favor of H.J. Res. 61 because it is important for peoples’ jobs and for the principle of not doing willy-nilly regulations at the end of an administration in order to pursue something that does not have verifiable data indicating specific and significant pollution,” said Rep. Griffith when speaking on the matter in a congressional session in March 2025.
However, Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey was swift to rebut, saying, “H.J. Res. 61, another attempt by House Republicans to ensure workers and communities continue to breathe toxic air pollution. This harmful Republican resolution puts the profits of billionaire corporate polluters over the health and welfare of the American people, and it makes a mockery of Republican promises to make America healthy again.”
HJ. Res. 61 could save abundant jobs in the tire manufacturing industry. It also could lead to spike in cancer, respiratory illnesses, and sulphur poisoning, and end up costing the workers more in an increasingly unaffordable healthcare system in the US. This bill, unfortunately for those that live near the factories, is just the latest in a long line of examples of the Trump led republican party siding with corporations, and passing the costs on to the consumer. Be they in the forms of tariffs for buying goods from EU or China, or healthcare for living near a tire manufacturing facility. America is no longer affordable for a non-billionaire corporate entity.