EDF, Allies Sue EPA over Attempt to Revoke State Clean Cars Authority

(Washington, D.C. – November 22, 2019) EDF, with a coalition of public health and environmental groups, is suing EPA for its attempt to withdraw clean cars authority from California and 13 other states.

The groups filed a petition for review in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today.

“Clean car standards are vital public health and climate protections that save Americans money at the gas pump” said EDF attorney Alice Henderson. “This unprecedented attempt to revoke states’ longstanding bipartisan authority to protect Americans from auto pollution is both deeply damaging and plainly unlawful.”

Today’s petition for review challenges EPA actions including its purported withdrawal of California’s Clean Air Act preemption waiver, under which California and 13 other states implement clean car standards.

The group’s petition follows a similar lawsuit filed last week by a coalition of 23 states – California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin – along with the District of Columbia and the cities of Los Angeles and New York.

Lawsuits challenging EPA’s unlawful actions have also been filed by transportation industry leaders, including Tesla, and by a coalition of air quality districts.

EDF is joined on today’s lawsuit by Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Communities for a Better Environment, Conservation Law Foundation, Environment America, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen, and Union of Concerned Scientists.

EDF previously joined most of these organizations in a separate lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to challenge the U.S. Department of Transportation’s unlawful regulation declaring that all state greenhouse gas and zero-emission vehicle standards are pre-empted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. EDF and most of these groups also filed a similar lawsuit, as a protective measure, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C Circuit.

You can find more court filings on EDF’s website.