Ag groups challenge EPA’s vehicle emissions rule
Summary
Circuit challenging a final rule issued by the U.S. EPA in December setting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for model year (MY) 2023-2026 passenger cars and light trucks. “The Ethanol Petitioners support reducing greenhouse gas emissions of the domestic transportation fleet consistent with the authority granted EPA in the Clean Air Act and with Congress’s directives in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which created the current Renewable Fuel Standard program to compel EPA to expand the nation’s renewable fuel sector in support of the nation’s environmental, energy, climate, and energy-security policy,” the ethanol petitioners wrote. The composition of the country’s vehicle fleet is precisely the kind of transformative issue that courts have increasingly recognized that Congress must address directly and that agencies may not claim new authority to regulate. “However, the final rule exceeds EPA’s authority by favoring one technology, electric vehicles, over others, including the comparably clean renewable fuels produced by Petitioners. Through the final rule, EPA seeks to unilaterally alter the transportation mix in the United States, without Congressional authorization and without adequately considering the vast greenhouse gas reduction benefits provided by renewable fuels.