The second lawsuit in as many weeks has been filed against the Environmental Protection Agency’s final tailpipe emissions rule. This effort is being led by the ethanol industry as it enters a separate challenge following another lawsuit that was submitted by the American Farm Bureau, National Corn Growers, the oil industry, and six auto dealers.
Renewable Fuels Association Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Troy Bredenkamp says there is a lack of choice in the EPA’s final tailpipe rule for light and medium duty vehicles.
He says the RFA and the National Farmers Union will argue in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that the EPA exceeded its authority under the “major questions doctrine” that limits agency rulemaking.
The Supreme Court may also rule this month on how far courts must go in deferring to agency regulatory power.
Bredenkamp says the immediate legal issue is that EPA is holding battery EVs and flex-fuel plug-in hybrids to different standards than vehicles powered by fossil fuels and biofuels.
He says that is not the case for an EV that has no tailpipe. Bredenkamp argues EVs still generate upstream pollution from electric generation and battery manufacturing.
