Appeals Court Affirms California’s Longstanding Authority to Set Clean Vehicle Standards

(Washington, D.C. – April 9, 2024) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today rejected challenges that sought to overturn California’s long-established authority under the Clean Air Act to set its own protective standards for pollution from new cars and trucks.

“California’s clean car standards will save lives, protect people from the climate crisis and unhealthy air pollution, save drivers money and help create good new jobs,” said Alice Henderson, Director and Lead Counsel for Environmental Defense Fund, which was a party to the case. “Today’s court decision is a victory for Californians, an affirmation of the Clean Air Act, and a welcome step in our journey to a clean transportation future.”

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel in Ohio v. EPA rejects a challenge from the Attorneys General of Ohio and other states, and from oil, gas, and ethanol interests. Twenty-three states and cities defended the California waiver in court, as did environmental and health groups, including EDF, and a large coalition of automakers and energy companies.

Transportation is the largest source of climate pollution in the U.S. and a large contributor to lethal particle and smog pollution. Setting strong emission standards for new cars and trucks is vital to protect people from the climate crisis and from the air pollution that makes them sick. California's program for pollution-free new cars is an important part of the state's fight against conventional smog and soot pollution.

Congress has explicitly recognized California’s authority to set clean vehicle standards since 1967. The Clean Air Act allows the state to set motor vehicle emissions standards that are at least as or more stringent than national standards pursuant to a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency.

In the past 57 years, EPA has granted California more than 75 waivers. California’s subsequent efforts to reduce air pollution from vehicles have been extremely successful, and its current program has been adopted by 17 other states across the country.

Ohio and the other states that challenged California’s authority were not seeking their own right to set standards – they just wanted to deny California’s traditional authority as guaranteed by federal law.

Today, the D.C. Circuit Court rejected their request, finding that both state petitioners and fuel petitioners lacked standing to raise certain of their claims because they had not demonstrated how a favorable decision by the court would remedy their alleged injuries.

The court also rejected on the merits state petitioners unprecedented constitutional claim that section 209 of the Clean Air Act violated the “equal sovereignty” doctrine, reaffirming California’s decades-old authority is constitutional, saying:

“State Petitioners point us to no meaningful support for their novel request to apply the equal sovereignty principle as a categorical limit on Congress’s power to regulate interstate commerce.” (Decision, page 47)

Ohio v. EPA is one of three cases about clean transportation that were argued before the D.C. Circuit court in two days last September. Two other cases – Texas v. EPA and NRDC v. NHTSA – were argued before a different three-judge panel, and those cases are still pending.

In addition to protecting people from climate change and air pollution, clean transportation standards are beneficial for U.S. jobs and the economy. A report by EDF and WSP shows that $188 billion in electric vehicle investments and 195,000 new U.S. jobs have been announced in the last nine years, with most of those announcements happening since passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. Another EDF report found that enough U.S. battery production capacity has already been announced to supply all the electric vehicles – both cars and trucks – expected to be sold in 2030.

You can find all legal briefs in these cases, and other cases challenging clean car and truck standards, on EDF’s website.