The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that fuel producers have standing to challenge the Environmental Protection Agency’s move allowing California to impose regulations on automakers pertaining to vehicle emissions and electric vehicle production.
The nation’s high court issued the 7-2 decision on Friday, reversing a lower court ruling.
The group dubbed “Fuel Petitioners” in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit’s decision included various entities such as Valero Renewable Fuels Company, LLC, industry-related groups, and organizations like corn-growing associations.
“The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” the Supreme Court opinion declares.
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“In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence before the Court of Appeals, the fuel producers established Article III standing to challenge EPA’s approval of the California regulations. We reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals and remand the case for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.”
Explaining the California regulations, the majority opinion delivered by Trump-nominated Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted that the “regulations generally require automakers (i) to limit average greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets of new motor vehicles sold in the State and (ii) to manufacture a certain percentage of electric vehicles as part of their vehicle fleet.”
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“To date, acting pursuant to the Clean Air Act, 17 States and the District of Columbia have copied California’s greenhouse-gas emissions standards for new motor vehicles, the electric-vehicle mandate, or both,” the opinion noted.
Lifting the regulations would likely lead to more sales by fuel producers, the high court observed.
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“Here, it may not be certain, but it is at least “predictable” that invalidating the California regulations would likely result in the fuel producers ultimately selling more gasoline and other liquid fuels,” the opinion noted.
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