The Center for Auto Safety has named a new executive director. Jason K. Levine succeeds the late Clarence M. Ditlow III, who headed the organization for decades prior to his death last November.
Levine, a consumer protection attorney, has held leadership positions in three federal agencies, including Chief of Staff at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Director of the Office of Congressional, Legislative, and Intergovernmental Affairs at the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).
Ralph Nader, who founded the Center for Auto Safety with Consumers Union in 1970, said Levine faces a difficult challenge.
"The Trump administration’s announced fervor to abandon law and order for corporate misbehavior intensifies the challenges for the Center and the American people," Nader said. "As an attorney, with government experience in dealing successfully with pressured situations, Jason Levine’s known passion for consumer health and safety will serve the public interest well.”
Levine said the Trump administration "has shown no interest in meeting its statutory duty and moral responsibility to enforce safety laws on behalf of drivers, passengers, and pedestrians."
"American consumers expect their government to prevent the false advertising of used cars and protect the environment from auto pollution. Yet, the only momentum we see in Washington is a regulatory rollback that too many in the auto industry are aiding and abetting," he said.
The Center for Auto Safety is a membership-driven organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. The Center is home to the Safe Climate Campaign, which fights global warming by working towards big, specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including slashing auto emissions and cutting the nation’s oil use in half. The Center is also the publisher of The Car Book, which has for the last 37 years been America’s most comprehensive car buying guide.