Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

New York and 14 other states filed a petition seeking review of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s final rule that reversed an inflation adjustment to penalties for violations of fuel economy standards. The final rule was published in the January 14, 2021 issue of the Federal Register. Environmental groups filed a challenge to the rule in January.

Filing Year For Action

Petitioners filed a motion for voluntary dismissal after NHTSA repealed the challenged ruled and restored the statutorily required penalty rate.

On January 13, 2022, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied a motion by Tesla, Inc. to lift the abeyance and grant summary vacatur in proceedings challenging a January 2021 interim final rule that delayed an inflation adjustment to the civil penalty for violations of the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Tesla filed the motion in August 2021, contending that removal of the cases from abeyance was warranted because the federal government had made “no tangible progress” in its review of the rule, which the government initially estimated would take six months. Tesla argued that the delays “significantly diminished” the value of credits “earned by over-performing companies like Tesla” and also affected the CAFE program’s stability, undermining “the public’s interest in cleaner air, climate protection, and energy conservation.” In its most recent status report to the court earlier in January 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that it had submitted a draft final rule to the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs for regulatory review.