Obtain the data you need to make the most informed decisions by accessing our extensive portfolio of information, analytics, and expertise. Sign in to the product or service center of your choice.
Seven national environmental groups have joined a legal battle
that 16 states including a Texas-led coalition of 15
states, soybean farmers and corn growers, oil and gas
producers, and a free-market think tank are waging over federal GHG
emissions standards for motor cars and pickup.
The groups asked permission from the US
Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit's permission
(DC Circuit) on 2 March to defend the US Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) GHG regulation that took effect 28 February.
In that rule, EPA
revised current GHG standards beginning with model year (MY)
2023 that increase in stringency year over year through MY
2026.
The nonprofits that include the Sierra Club, Environmental
Defense Fund, and the Union of Concerned Scientists said their goal
is to protect their members "from the effects of harmful air
pollution, including effects traceable to climate change."
Noting that transportation is the largest source of GHGs in the
US, the groups said they have an interest in increasing
availability of a broader range of cleaner automobiles in the
marketplace that would be driven by EPA's regulation.
Transportation top emitter
Prior to pandemic-induced lockdown, EPA's draft GHG inventory shows
that transportation sector was the top emitter in 2019 with 1.87
billion metric tons (mt), and that passenger cars were responsible
for 40% and light trucks for nearly 18% of those emissions. Even
during the pandemic when most people hunkered down, most GHG emissions came from
passenger cars in this sector, notably from burning fossil
fuels.
Compared with vehicle standards EPA set in 2020 for MY 2021
through MY 2026, known as the Safer Affordable Fuel Efficient
Vehicles Act, EPA estimated its 2021 rule will reduce CO2
emissions by 3.1 billion mt, methane emissions by 3.3 million mt,
and ozone-forming nitrogen oxide emissions by 97,600 mt.
Absent this rule, the groups said increased GHGs would
exacerbate the intensity and frequency of climate-fueled effects
such as wildfires, droughts, heat waves, and sea-level rise
affecting properties of its members, not to mention health effects
from increased ground-level ozone.
Lacking congressional authorization
Leading the legal challenge against the EPA regulation is Texas
Attorney General Ken Paxton who
accused the Biden administration in a 28 February lawsuit of
promoting electric vehicles and waging a war against fossil fuels
"at a time when American gas prices are skyrocketing at the pump,
and the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows again the absolute need for
energy independence."
Drawing on the same federal overreach argument that a West
Virginia-led coalition that includes Texas made to the
US Supreme Court justices during oral arguments on 28 February
about EPA's authority to set power plant GHG standards, Paxton said
EPA is exceeding its authority by seeking to "promote the Biden
Administration's radical climate change agenda by promoting
electric vehicle usage over other, superior means of transportation
that use abundant fossil fuels."
He said the rule would stress the state's electric grid, and it
also would "decreas[e] the need for gasoline billions of gallons,
effectively destroying Texas's robust energy industry."
But Paxton was not alone in accusing the Biden administration of
favoring EVs over conventional fuels as well as biofuels. The 2021
rule is facing at least four separate legal challenges from the
nonprofit Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which describes
itself as an advocate for the free market movement; trade group
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers; the state soybean
associations of eight states and Texas-based oil and gas
exploration firm by the name of Diamond Alternative Energy; and
corn-growing associations of six states, joined by Valero Renewable
Fuels Company, a subsidiary of Valero Energy, and Clean Development
Fuels Coalition (CDFC).
Preferring EVs
In a 28 February statement, CEI attorney Devin Watkins accused
the EPA of transforming the motor vehicle market from gas-powered
to electric vehicles by making gas-powered automobiles more
expensive.
Moreover, he observed that the EPA has jointly issued automobile
rules with the National Highway Transit Safety Administration
(NHTSA) for the past 12 years. He contended that only NHTSA has the
authority to issue fleet-wide average automobile standards, but in
its rule, "the EPA attempts on its own to establish fleet-wide
automobile standards with credit trading and enhanced credits for
electric vehicles."
The two separate groups representing biofuels—the corn
growers and soybean associations—were likewise miffed because
the EPA has given short shrift to their low-carbon products at the
expense of EVs.
In their petition for review, the soybean associations
representing the states of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan,
Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, and South Dakota, along with Diamond
Alternative Energy, said they supported EPA's goal of reducing GHGs
consistent with congressional directives in the Energy Independence
And Security Act of 2007, which they said created the current
Renewable Fuel Standard program to compel the agency to expand the
nation's renewable fuel sector in support of US energy,
environment, and climate policies.
"However, the final rule exceeds EPA's authority by favoring one
technology, electric vehicles, over others, including the
comparably clean renewable fuels produced by Petitioners," they
wrote.
They too said the EPA is seeking to "unilaterally alter" the
transportation mix in the US without congressional authorization
and without adequately considering "the vast greenhouse gas
reduction benefits provided by renewable fuels."
Automakers on sideline
Joanne Spalding, acting director of Sierra Club's environmental
law program, told S&P Global Commodity Insight's Net-Zero
Business Daily that, in her opinion, it's significant that no
automakers have filed challenges to the rule. They are the most
directly affected, she said in an interview on 2 March.
Instead, "it's … those with special interests to keep the US
hooked on oil are attacking the EPA's authority to regulate climate
emissions and protect public health," Spalding said.
Spalding also questioned the basis for Paxton's claim that EPA
lacks the authority to regulate GHGs in automobiles.
Starting with the 2007 ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA,
the EPA's authority to regulate GHGs has been upheld multiple
times, Spalding said. "The Texas Attorney General has it backwards.
The authority is well within EPA's wheelhouse," she added.
Even the West Virginia attorney general conceded that point
during the recent power plant arguments before the Supreme Court
justices, she added.
Posted 03 March 2022 by Amena Saiyid, Senior Climate and Energy Research Analyst
This article was published by S&P Global Commodity Insights and not by S&P Global Ratings, which is a separately managed division of S&P Global.
{"items" : [
{"name":"share","enabled":true,"desc":"<strong>Share</strong>","mobdesc":"Share","options":[ {"name":"facebook","url":"https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http%3a%2f%2fcleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com%2fresearch-analysis%2fenvironmental-groups-back-us-government-in-legal-battle-over-f.html","enabled":true},{"name":"twitter","url":"https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=http%3a%2f%2fcleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com%2fresearch-analysis%2fenvironmental-groups-back-us-government-in-legal-battle-over-f.html&text=Environmental+groups+back+US+government+in+legal+battle+over+federal+vehicle+GHG+standards++%7c+IHS+Markit+","enabled":true},{"name":"linkedin","url":"https://www.linkedin.com/sharing/share-offsite/?url=http%3a%2f%2fcleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com%2fresearch-analysis%2fenvironmental-groups-back-us-government-in-legal-battle-over-f.html","enabled":true},{"name":"email","url":"?subject=Environmental groups back US government in legal battle over federal vehicle GHG standards | IHS Markit &body=http%3a%2f%2fcleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com%2fresearch-analysis%2fenvironmental-groups-back-us-government-in-legal-battle-over-f.html","enabled":true},{"name":"whatsapp","url":"https://api.whatsapp.com/send?text=Environmental+groups+back+US+government+in+legal+battle+over+federal+vehicle+GHG+standards++%7c+IHS+Markit+ http%3a%2f%2fcleanenergynews.ihsmarkit.com%2fresearch-analysis%2fenvironmental-groups-back-us-government-in-legal-battle-over-f.html","enabled":true}]}, {"name":"rtt","enabled":true,"mobdesc":"Top"}
]}