Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge on California’s EV Mandate

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on December 13 that it will hear EMA, NACS, and other associations’ challenge to EPA’s decision to grant a Clean Air Act waiver to the State of California for its 2021-2025 electric vehicle mandate. The groups’ petition urged the Court to review and overturn an April ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, which determined that the energy petitioners lacked standing, based on redressability, to challenge EPA’s issuance of a federal waiver allowing California to impose its Advanced Clean Cars I (ACCI) EV mandate. It is expected that the Court will focus its review narrowly on the procedural standing issue and not the validity of the waiver itself.

“The SCOTUS decision to review the DC Circuit’s opinion is a significant step toward preserving consumer choice and ensuring that all forms of energy are treated equally,” said EMA President Rob Underwood. “The Court should clarify that EPA cannot hide behind the redressability issue to empower the EPA to allow one state to regulate vehicle greenhouse gas emissions, impose electric vehicle mandates or limit consumer access to internal combustion engine technology.”

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court will hear this case,” said Doug Kantor, NACS General Counsel. “The question of who decides vehicle standards for the nation is too important for courts to hide behind unsupported legal technicalities of ‘standing.’ We need a federal standard that makes the entire nation’s interests in lower emissions and a strong economy its priority rather than arbitrarily picking one technology over others, regardless of results.”

The California regulation mandates that by the year 2025, 22% of newly sold vehicles within the state must emit zero emissions. This regulation is the precursor to expected future Californian regulations that will gradually require all new vehicles sold within the state to be zero-emission. Clean Air Act Section 177 allows other states to adopt California’s motor vehicle emission standards. Section 177 requires states that choose to do so must adopt emission standards identical to the California standards. Currently, 17 states (New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Washington, Oregon, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, Virginia, and New Mexico) and the District of Columbia, representing 35.9 percent of all new vehicle sales sold in the U.S., have adopted various aspects of California’s vehicle emission standards. 

For California to establish its distinct regulations, it must receive a waiver from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). These waivers are intended to be based on California’s unique air quality needs. However, California requested a waiver on the grounds of global climate change concerns, not specifically Californian air quality. Several states, as well as NACS and their renewable and traditional fuels industry coalition partners, opposed the waiver because, legally, national standards should address worldwide issues.

The Court will set a schedule for briefing and oral argument in the case. A decision is expected before the end of the Court’s term next June.