Despite the Trump administration’s attempt to pause a lawsuit challenging California’s Environmental Protection Agency waiver for Advanced Clean Cars, the Supreme Court will move forward with the case.
The Supreme Court recently denied the federal government’s request to delay a case brought on by oil and gas companies to undo an EPA waiver that allowed California to enforce its Advanced Clean Cars rule. Under President Donald Trump, the EPA is expected to roll back numerous actions it took under former President Joe Biden.
Although the case deals with California’s Advanced Clean Cars rule, which ends with model year 2025 vehicles, it could affect similar challenges to other California vehicle emission rules, including Advanced Clean Trucks. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has paused litigation in a lawsuit contesting Advanced Clean Trucks pending a decision in the Advanced Clean Cars case.
California is the only state that is allowed to set vehicle emission standards that are stricter than federal standards. It must receive a waiver from the EPA before doing so. Once that waiver is granted, other states can adopt those standards. More than a dozen states have adopted Advanced Clean Cars rules.
The waiver for Advanced Clean Cars was initially granted in 2013, but it was revoked in 2019 during Trump’s first term in office. However, former President Joe Biden reinstated California’s waiver in 2022, prompting lawsuits filed by 17 states and oil groups.
Both lawsuits argue that the EPA’s waiver for Advanced Clean Cars is unlawful, a similar argument made in lawsuits opposing Advanced Clean Trucks.
However, the D.C. Circuit rejected the lawsuits, finding that neither the states nor oil and gas companies have standing to sue. Plaintiffs in both cases asked the Supreme Court to reverse that ruling. Additionally, they asked the high court to go a step further and decide on the question of constitutionality, as well.
Last December, the Supreme Court rejected the states’ petition but agreed to hear the oil and gas companies’ case. However, it will decide only on the issue of standing. If the high court sides with the oil and gas companies, the case will be punted back to the circuit court to decide whether the EPA’s waiver for Advanced Clean Cars is legal, a process that could be drawn out for several more years.
A change in the White House administration has thrown a wrench in the works. On Jan. 20, Trump signed an executive order “to eliminate the ‘electric vehicle (EV) mandate.’” That executive order directs agencies to request courts to “delay further litigation” in relevant cases as they determine which regulations to go after. Trump specifically ordered agencies to terminate “state emissions waivers that function to limit sales of gasoline-powered automobiles.”
In January, the federal government asked the Supreme Court to pause the schedule to file briefs in the Advanced Clean Cars case. The EPA’s brief is due Feb. 26. In its request, the government said it is looking into the waiver.
“After the change in administration, EPA’s acting administrator has determined that the agency should reassess the basis for and soundness of the 2022 reinstatement decision,” the motion states. “Such a reassessment could obviate the need for this court to determine whether petitioners had Article III standing to challenge that decision.”
After the Supreme Court decided to keep the lawsuit going, it granted the federal government’s request to extend the deadline to file its brief to March 12.
More than a dozen organizations have filed amicus briefs in the case, all of which support the oil and gas companies’ claim that it has standing to file the lawsuit. That includes Our Children’s Trust, a nonprofit protecting “children’s rights to life, liberty and security from the dangers of fossil fuel pollution.” The organization disagrees with the oil and gas companies on the merits of the case but also believes the D.C. Circuit got the standing issue wrong.
Trucking stakeholders, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, have weighed in on the Advanced Clean Cars lawsuit. Early on in the litigation, OOIDA told the D.C. Circuit Court that a decision in the case could impact future EPA waivers, including those directed at trucks.
“The federal government, not one state, is the appropriate authority to impose a mandate of such vast economic and political significance,” OOIDA wrote in its amicus brief. “Only Congress has the authority to pass the laws and appropriate the resources to support the nationwide infrastructure that will ensure the least burdensome and most efficient adoption of any electric vehicle mandate.”
The EPA has yet to announce plans to revoke any of California’s vehicle emission waivers. However, the Department of Transportation has already started the process of rolling back fuel economy standards and rescinding a greenhouse gas measurement rule. LL
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