Description: Challenges to greenhouse gas emission standards for heavy-duty trucks and to greenhouse gas emission standards for model year 2012-2016 light-duty vehicles.
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Delta Construction Co. v. EPA
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 08/03/2015 Order Download Order issued denying rehearing en banc. D.C. Circuit Declined to Rehear Challenge to Fuel Standards. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals denied rehearing en banc to petitioners who unsuccessfully challenged greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards issued in 2010 and 2011 for new cars and trucks. The D.C. Circuit dismissed the challenges in April 2015 without reaching the merits. The petitioners who sought rehearing en banc argued that the dismissal of their claims on standing grounds was not consistent with Supreme Court precedent. 06/04/2015 Petition for Rehearing Download Petition for rehearing en banc filed. Petitioners who unsuccessfully challenged the greenhouse gas and fuel economy standards for new cars and trucks before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals asked the court for rehearing en banc. The court had found that these petitioners—who argued that EPA failed to comply with a statutory mandate to submit rules for peer review to the Science Advisory Board (SAB)—lacked standing. The court said the petitioners failed to establish causation or redressability because their alleged injury of increased cost to purchase vehicles would not be redressed since the standards, which were issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as well as EPA, would continue to apply because the SAB requirement did not apply to NHTSA. In their petition for rehearing en banc, the petitioners argued that the standing determination conflicted with Supreme Court precedent on redressability. The petitioners also argued that the case involved a question of exceptional importance. 04/24/2015 Opinion Download Opinion issued. The D.C. Circuit dismissed challenges to federal greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. The regulations were issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The car standards were finalized in 2010, and the D.C. Circuit had already upheld them once in 2012. The truck standards were finalized in 2011. The D.C. Circuit said the petitioners who claimed that EPA had violated the Clean Air Act by failing to provide the car and truck regulations to the Science Advisory Board prior to publication had not established standing. The court said the plaintiffs had not demonstrated causation or redressability for the alleged injury—increased cost to purchase vehicles—because even in the absence of the EPA standards, the “substantially identical” NHTSA regulations would continue to apply. The court also dismissed challenges to the truck standards brought by “a business that promotes the use of vegetable oil in place of traditional diesel fuel”; the company alleged that the standards made its products economically infeasible and claimed that the regulations were arbitrary and capricious because, among other reasons, they ignored lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions. The D.C. Circuit said it did not have original jurisdiction over the company’s claim against NHTSA because under NHTSA regulations, the company’s request for reconsideration of the truck standards had been deemed a petition for rulemaking; jurisdiction for review of denials of petitions for rulemaking is in the district courts. With respect to the claim against EPA, the D.C. Circuit said that the company did not fall within the zone of interests protected by the statute. 11/14/2013 Motion Download Joint motion filed to sever and continue to hold in abeyance certain cases and to enter briefing format and schedule for remaining cases. The parties submitted a joint motion seeking to sever the challenges that were dependent on the Supreme Court’s determination in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA regarding stationary source greenhouse gas permitting and to proceed with a briefing schedule for the remainder of the challenges to the rule and related cases. 11/04/2011 Petition for Review Petition for review filed. Several trucking and construction companies filed a lawsuit challenging EPA’s rules regarding greenhouse gas emissions requirements for heavy-duty trucks. In September 2011, EPA and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration established greenhouse gas emissions limits and fuel economy standards for model years 2014-18 on medium- and heavy-duty pickup trucks, delivery vehicles, and tractor trailers. The lawsuit alleged that EPA failed to send the proposed standards to the agency’s Science Advisory Board for review as required under federal law. -
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. v. EPA
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 12/12/2013 Order Download Order issued granting motion for voluntary dismissal. The D.C. Circuit granted petitioner Clean Energy Fuels Corp.’s unopposed motion to dismiss it from consolidated proceedings challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) September 2011 rule establishing greenhouse gas emissions and fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty engines and vehicles. Clean Energy Fuels, which was described in the proceedings as “the leading provider of natural gas for transportation in North America,” had objected to the use of a higher global warming potential (GWP) for methane from mobile sources than for methane from stationary sources. This discrepancy was rectified in EPA’s November 2013 amendment to the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Rule. 12/09/2013 Motion Download Motion for voluntary dismissal of petition filed. 11/14/2011 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. -
Plant Oil Powered Diesel Fuel Systems, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Transportation
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/23/2012 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. A clean diesel company filed a lawsuit challenging EPA’s and the Department of Transportation’s joint fuel economy greenhouse gas emissions standards for passenger medium- and heavy-duty trucks. In particular, the lawsuit alleged that the regulations only measured greenhouse gases from the tailpipe and did not account for producing the fuels. -
California Construction Trucking Association, Inc. v. EPA
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 03/25/2013 Petition for Review Download Petition for review filed. In April 2011, parties petitioned EPA to reconsider aspects of the greenhouse gas emissions standards issued in May 2010 for model year 2012-2016 light duty vehicles. Petitioners argued that EPA had failed to make the standards available to the Science Advisory Board for review and comment prior to promulgating the standards. In January 2013, EPA denied the petition for reconsideration, finding that the issues raised by the petition could have been made during the public comment period for the rulemaking and that the petition “failed to demonstrate that its objection is of central relevance to the outcome of the rulemaking.” On March 25, 2013, petitioners filed a Petition for Review in the D.C. Circuit seeking review of EPA’s denial.