WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it would hear a business-backed challenge that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations in a dispute involving California’s industry-leading standards for vehicle emissions.
The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by fuel makers who objected to a waiver the Environmental Protection Agency granted California in 2022 during Joe Biden’s presidency. The waiver allows California to set stricter emissions limits than the national standard.
The case won’t be argued until the spring, when the Trump administration will surely take a more industry-friendly approach to the issue. President-elect Donald Trump has promised to boost production of fossil fuels such as oil, natural gas and coal and to repeal key parts of a historic 2022 climate law.
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The Supreme Court will not review the waiver itself, but will instead look at a preliminary issue, namely whether fuel manufacturers have legal standing to challenge the EPA waiver.
The federal appeals court in Washington ruled that the companies did not have the right to sue because they had not provided evidence that they would be affected by the waiver, which directly affects automakers.
Ford, Honda, Volkswagen and other major automakers already meet California emissions standards, the government said in court filings.
But the fuel makers told the Supreme Court that the appellate decision, if left in place, would “jeopardize future challenges to administrative action.”
They said they met the legal test to go to trial. As a “matter of common sense,” the companies’ lawyers wrote, automakers would produce fewer electric vehicles and more gas-powered cars if the waiver were repealed, which would directly impact the amount of fuel sold.
The EPA waiver was part of the Biden administration’s efforts to reverse the environmental rollbacks of Trump’s first term in the White House and restore California’s authority to set stricter emissions rules.
California has unique authority under the federal Clean Air Act to set stricter standards for cars sold in the nation’s largest state, which has pushed automakers to produce more fuel-efficient passenger cars that emit fewer climate-damaging exhaust fumes.
In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed the fuel makers’ case, as well as a related challenge from Ohio and other Republican-led states and fuel producers. The appeals court hears many challenges to federal regulations.
The Supreme Court did not hear the states’ appeal.
The current battle has its roots in a 2019 decision by the Trump administration to revoke state authority. Three years later, with Biden in office, the EPA restored state authority.
Other environmental rules have not fared well in recent years on the conservative-majority court. In 2022, the justices limited the EPA’s authority to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants in a landmark decision. In June, the court halted the agency’s “good neighbor” rule against air pollution.
Another ruling in June, overturning a decades-old decision colloquially known as Chevron, is also expected to make setting and enforcing environmental regulations more difficult, along with other actions by federal agencies.
But judges have also recently upheld environmental rules aimed at limiting pollution from coal-fired power plants, amid legal challenges.
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