Supreme Court to hear challenge related to California's tough vehicle emissions rules

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to review whether fuel producers can challenge California's vehicle emissions rules to transition away from gasoline powered cars.

What California does shapes national emissions standards because of its large customer base for automakers.

But fuel producers and sellers argue that the state is unlawfully acting as a “quasi-federal regulator on global climate change.”

"Congress did not give California special authority to regulate greenhouse gases, mandate electric vehicles or ban new gas car sales," Chet Thompson, head of the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, said in a statement. "We look forward to our day in court."

The underlying issue is whether the Environmental Protection Agency can allow California to impose emissions standards on new vehicles that are tougher than the federal government’s.

The Clean Air Act permits that under certain conditions. That provision was intended in part to address the fact the climate and topography of the nation’s most populous state makes pollution from tailpipe emissions harder to control.

But GOP states argued Congress didn’t have the authority to carve out special permission for California because “no state is more equal than the others.”

“And California’s vast economy means that whatever regulations California imposes will likely set the market for the rest of the nation,” they told the Supreme Court.

While the court did not act on the states' appeal, it agreed to consider if fuel producers can challenge California’s efforts to phase out gasoline-powered cars.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the challenge, saying the oil industry groups hadn’t shown they’d be sufficiently harmed by California’s standards.

While the fuel producers say it’s self evident fuel consumption will go down, the appeals court found automakers were already transitioning toward electric vehicles by the time the challenge was filed.

EPA takes different positions during the Trump and Biden administrations

Complicating the issue is the fact that the EPA took different positions on California’s rules during the Trump and Biden administrations.

The Trump administration revoked California’s permission slip, saying it violated federal law. The Biden administration restored the waiver, which is in effect through model year 2025.

California’s request to impose standards well beyond that is pending with the EPA. The state wants to end the sale of new vehicles that run solely on gasoline by 2035.

And the EPA announced its own rules this year to cut tailpipe emissions in half by 2032.

Those rules, which President-elect Donald Trump has promised to repeal, are also being challenged by oil industry groups and Republican states.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide the case, Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, by summer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court to hear challenge to CA's move to phase out gas-powered cars