The Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to pause a lawsuit challenging California’s waiver for stricter vehicle emission standards, a case being closely watched by those involved in similar lawsuits, including challenges to Advanced Clean Trucks.
New Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator James Payne filed the motion to put the case on hold after President Donald 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.” At the center of the Supreme Court case is California’s waiver for Advanced Clean Cars, which gradually increased emission standards for model year 2017-25 passenger vehicles.
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The waiver for Advanced Clean Cars was initially granted in 2013, but it was revoked in 2019 during Trump’s first term in office.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 Republican-led states and oil groups.
Last April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit rejected those lawsuits. The court found neither the states nor the oil groups had standing to file the lawsuit since there is nothing it can do to redress their injuries. Even if the court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, Advanced Clean Cars rules end with model year 2025, so whatever damage has been done cannot be undone.
Oil groups and states asked the Supreme Court to reverse the ruling. On Dec. 13, the high court granted the oil groups’ petition on the issue of standing but declined to rule on claims of the constitutionality of California’s waiver for Advanced Clean Cars. However, the court rejected the states’ petition.
In the motion to pause the lawsuit, new Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris told the Supreme Court that the EPA is looking into Biden’s reinstatement of California’s 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.”
In its brief filed on Monday, Jan. 27, oil and gas company Diamond Alternative Energy claims that revoking the waiver and “wiping California’s Advanced Clean Cars program off the books would thus be likely to remedy at least one dollar of petitioners’ economic injuries.”
“Private schools have standing to challenge a law prohibiting parents from sending their children to private school,” the oil company states. “Publishers have standing to challenge a law banning bookstores from selling their books. And here, producers and sellers of liquid fuels have standing to challenge a rule requiring automakers to make cars that use less liquid fuel, or none at all.”
Although the case deals with Advanced Clean Cars, it could affect similar cases challenging other California waivers, including Advanced Clean Trucks. In fact, the D.C. Circuit has paused the challenge to Advanced Clean Trucks pending a decision in the Advanced Clean Cars case.
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.”
On Dec. 18, Biden’s EPA granted California’s waiver for Advanced Clean Cars II and Heavy-Duty Omnibus regulations. By 2035, all new passenger vehicles sold in California must be zero-direct-emission, while truck engines must reduce nitrogen oxide emission by 75% and particulate matter by 50%. The waiver for Advanced Clean Trucks was granted in March 2023.
All three waivers could end up on the chopping block under Trump’s executive order. As of Tuesday, Jan. 28, the EPA had not announced any decisions regarding those waivers. LL
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