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by Zack Budryk (The Hill) Seventeen Republican state attorneys general on Friday announced a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for allowing California to set its own vehicle emissions standards. 

The lawsuit alleges EPA Administrator Michael Regan violated the Constitution’s doctrine of equal sovereignty by allowing California an exemption from the Clean Air Act, which the Golden State used to impose more stringent emissions limits than the nationwide limit. 

“The Act simply leaves California with a slice of its sovereign authority that Congress withdraws from every other state,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R) said in a statement. “The EPA cannot selectively waive the Act’s preemption for California alone because that favoritism violates the states’ equal sovereignty.” 

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include the attorneys general for Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.

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Morrissey is also suing the EPA in a pending Supreme Court case that could have major implications for the agency’s authority to regulate emissions under the Clean Air Act. In addition to several fossil fuel companies, other plaintiffs in the case include many of the same states involved in the Friday lawsuit, as well as Alaska and South Dakota.   READ MORE

WV AG Morrisey Joins Lawsuit Challenging EPA California Exemption (WCBC)

Attorneys general for 17 Republican states sue EPA (UPI)

17 states push EPA to revoke California’s ability to set its own vehicle emission standards (Los Angeles Times)

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING: EPA Restoration of California Waiver Will Support State Climate Action, Improve Air Quality, and Advance our Electric Vehicle Future (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

EPA Restores California’s Authority to Enforce Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards for Cars and Light Trucks (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

EPA restores California waiver on vehicle greenhouse gas emissions: California will need a new waiver from EPA in the coming years to regulate post-2025 vehicles. (Politico Pro)

Red states ask court to torpedo special California authority over vehicle emissions — The Clean Air Act grants California special ability to enforce more stringent emissions standards on vehicles because the state already had a program in place when the Clean Air Act was passed in 1970. (Politico Pro)

Greens defend Calif. vehicle standards against GOP challenge (Politico Pro/E&E News)

Five automakers back California authority to set stricter vehicle emissions standards (The Hill)

UTILITIES BACK EPA IN WAIVER PROGRAM FIGHT: (Politico’s Morning Energy)

Excerpt from Los Angeles Times: California first negotiated its own set of tougher emission standards with Congress during the passage of the Clean Air Act in 1970. The state has a carve-out agreement in the Clean Air Act but each year requires a waiver from the EPA. The 2009 update reinstated a 40-year interpretation of the act that was rescinded by the Bush administration and reinstated under the Obama administration.

In 2019, the EPA threatened to cut federal transportation funds to California for not submitting timely pollution-control plans. The open feud between the state and the Trump administration seemed to come to a head after California secretly negotiated a deal with four major automakers to voluntarily follow the state’s emission rules and increase fuel efficiency.

At the time, the EPA rescinded a decades-old rule that allowed California to set tougher-than-required car emissions standards than those required by federal regulators. After the waiver was rescinded, California sued the federal government, arguing the tougher standards were necessary to improve air quality in the state.

Three years later, under the Biden administration in 2022, the EPA reversed its hostile stance toward California’s vehicle emission standards and reinstated the waiver under the Clean Air Act. Multiple attorneys general called California’s special treatment unconstitutional, including many of the states that joined the recent petition.

In March, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, Republican leader of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said, “President Biden’s strict auto emissions regulations are yet another example of this administration putting a radical rush-to-green regulatory regime ahead of restoring America’s energy dominance and leadership.”  READ MORE

Excerpt from Politico’s Morning Energy: UTILITIES BACK EPA IN WAIVER PROGRAM FIGHT: Several major utilities are jumping to EPA’s defense in litigation over the restoration of California’s tailpipe emissions waiver and the constitutionality of the waiver program itself. In a filing Monday evening, the utilities said that the waiver program and California’s long-time climate agenda has driven billions of dollars in charging infrastructure and grid improvements — investments at risk should the Republican-led states win this lawsuit.

The utilities are getting involved “to protect their interests and ensure that they and their members realize the benefits of their investments in the technology, infrastructure, and clean electricity generation resources needed to fuel the light-duty vehicle fleet,” they wrote. On the motion are the group Advanced Energy Economy as well as Calpine Corp., National Grid USA, New York Power Authority, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Seattle City Light.  READ MORE