Justices agree to hear dispute over California emissions rules

Source: Roll Call

Posted December 13, 2024 at 5:22pm


The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to hear a case seeking to challenge California’s ability to set tighter car emissions standards than the EPA. The challenge from a group of energy companies and trade groups is to the agency’s waiver giving California the ability to set tighter standards than the rest of the country under the law known as the Clean Air Act. The case is part of a long-running legal battle over California’s ability to set its own environmental standards.

The justices on Friday granted review of only part of the challenge: over whether the companies and trade groups can continue their case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had previously tossed it. The high court will likely issue a decision before the end of the court’s term in June. Several states are separately asking the Supreme Court to take their own case against California’s waiver. The justices have yet to say whether they will do so.

The case now on the Supreme Court’s docket — Diamond Alternative Energy LLC v. EPA — has its roots in the state’s latest emissions plan, which received the latest EPA waiver in 2022. The state readopted fuel emissions standards under the waiver that runs through 2025. The agency gave an initial waiver in 2013, but the Trump administration revoked it in 2019.

The challengers argued that climate change is not a uniquely California problem, and that the legal waiver portion of the clean air statute is meant to allow the state to set its own standards to handle unique pollution problems.

Read more: https://rollcall.com/2024/12/13/justices-agree-to-hear-dispute-over-california-emissions-rules/