Biden's EPA faces lawsuit over new emission standards: 'Forcing a switch'

The American Petroleum Institute, along with a coalition of energy and trucking groups, recently filed lawsuits against the Biden administration's Environmental Protection Agency to block its new emission standards.

The groups filed a lawsuit on Thursday in the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit against the EPA's finalized emission standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles. On Tuesday, they filed another lawsuit in the same court against the latest emission requirements for heavy-duty vehicles.

'Devastate the reliability of America's supply chain and ultimately increase costs.'

The Biden administration announced in March that it had finalized the "strongest ever greenhouse gas standards" for freight trucks and buses, Blaze News previously reported. The restrictions impact vehicles for model years 2027 through 2032. The EPA also touted its "strongest ever" emission standards for passenger cars, light-duty trucks, and other medium-duty vehicles.

According to the administration, its recently finalized standards will "avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society, including $13 billion of annual public health benefits due to improved air quality, and $62 billion in reduced annual fuel costs, and maintenance and repair costs for drivers."

The standards will require up to 56% of all new car sales to be electric or other zero-emissions alternatives between 2030 and 2032, Reuters reported.

A number of other groups, including Exxon Mobil, Chevron, the American Farm Bureau, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the National Corn Growers Association, and many others, joined the legal action against the EPA.

Ryan Meyers, API's senior vice president and general counsel, stated, "The EPA is forcing a switch to technology that simply does not presently exist for these kinds of vehicles — and even if it were someday possible, it will almost certainly have consequences for your average American."

Meyes said API is taking the action to "protect American consumers, U.S. manufacturing workers and our nation's hard-won energy security from this intrusive government mandate."

National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle said, "EPA has tried to impose a one-size-fits-all approach to addressing climate change by prioritizing electric vehicles over other climate remedies like corn ethanol."

Todd Spencer, president of the OOIDA, expressed concern that the strict regulations would force small-business truckers, who make up 96% of trucking, "out of existence."

"This rule would devastate the reliability of America's supply chain and ultimately increase costs for consumers. Mom-and-pop trucking businesses would be suffocated by the sheer cost and operational challenges of effectively mandating zero-emission trucks, but this administration appears intent on forcing through its deluge of misguided environmental mandates," Spencer remarked.

The EPA declined a request for comment from Reuters.

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