A brewing legal battle against the Biden administration’s efforts to curb the largest source of planet-warming pollution in the United States has the potential to go all the way to the nation’s highest bench.
EPA last week unveiled the strongest-ever tailpipe emissions clampdown, aiming to halve greenhouse gases from cars and light trucks, while pushing to have electric vehicles make up about two-thirds of new passenger vehicle sales by 2032. The regulation drew immediate protest — and threats of litigation — from critics such as fossil fuel companies and Republican lawmakers.
The new rule comes as some of those same interests await a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a lawsuit challenging a more lenient clean car rule that the Biden administration finalized in 2021.
“Anything with the word climate in it or addressing climate is getting challenged,” said Sedina Banks, a partner with California-based law firm Greenberg Glusker. “Climate change issues touch so many different industries that it’s probably impossible to have a rule where everyone’s happy.”
