Attorney General Steve Marshall recently filed a brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stop the Biden administration’s plans to impose emissions standards on truck manufacturers.
In April, the Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA) published a rule imposing stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks, buses and other large vehicles, an action the EPA said will help clean up some of the nation’s largest sources of greenhouse gases.
In publishing the new rule, which takes effect for model years 2027 through 2032, the EPA claimed it would avoid up to 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades and provide $13 billion in net benefits in the form of fewer hospital visits, lost work days and deaths.
However, Marshall, along with AGs from 23 other states, claims the new rule effectively forces manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal combustion trucks.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has declared war on American energy, and Americans are tired of its direct impact on their bank accounts,” Marshall said. “If Hurricane Helene and Milton taught us anything, it’s that we cannot rely entirely on electric vehicles. We must have secure, affordable, and reliable access to internal-combustion trucks which have kept our country moving for decades.”
The brief argues that the EPA’s electric-truck mandate raises a “major question” that Congress has not clearly authorized EPA to decide. It also points out that just one-tenth of one percent of all heavy-duty trucks sold today are powered by a battery, but that the rule would increase that number to 45% in less than a decade.
The brief argues that this rule is an overreach on the part of the EPA, making decisions meant for Congress and individual states, not the Executive Branch.
“If it stands, EPA’s rule would disrupt a heavy-duty trucking industry that moves over $30 billion in freight every day,” the brief reads. “It would jeopardize electric-grid stability. And it would short circuit the lively debate over vehicle electrification playing out in Washington and the States.”
“For these and other reasons, the rule implicates a major question. That requires EPA to point to clear congressional authorization to electrify the Nation’s heavy-duty vehicle fleet," the brief adds.
AGs from Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming joined the brief.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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