DOJ Rebuts Constitutional, 'Major Questions' Claims In Auto Waiver Suit

摘要

The Justice Department (DOJ) is detailing its pushback to state and industry petitioners challenging EPA's reinstatement of a preemption waiver for California's vehicle greenhouse gas standards, arguing the GOP-led states' constitutional arguments are "invented," and that the Trump EPA unlawfully erred in blocking the programs. In addition, DOJ's Jan. 13 response brief- in State of Ohio et al. v EPA, et al. in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit - asserts that all petitioners in the suit lack standing to bring key claims. In the litigation, a coalition of GOP states, liquid fuels interests and others argue that EPA's March 2022 decision reaffirming states' auto GHG and zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) programs is unconstitutional and violates fuel economy law. The suit represents a direct assault on state vehicle standards, as well as an effort to revive claims that the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) blocks state rules for both GHGs and ZEVs. But "the Court should dismiss these petitions as a threshold matter," DOJ argues, saying state petitioners lack standing to bring the case. "Their assertions of economic injury in fact from California's zero emissions vehicle standards are unsupported and conclusory, depending on an extended chain of third-party actions without any evidence of harm," DOJ writes. In addition, state petitioners have "benefitted substantially from the increasing electrification of the vehicle industry."