The Supreme Court ruled in favor of a group of fuel producers, allowing a lawsuit that seeks to block California’s ability to set tighter vehicle emissions standards to move forward.
The justices Friday ruled in a 7-2 decision that the fossil fuel and biofuel companies had shown that federal courts had the power to address their concerns that the state’s ability to set stricter limits than the federal government was unfairly tilting the market against them.
“Based on this Court’s precedents and the evidence in the record, we hold that the fuel producers have standing,” said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing the majority opinion for the court. “We therefore reverse the contrary judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and remand for that court to consider the merits of the fuel producers’ legal claims.”
Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson filed separate dissenting opinions.
EPA granted the California waiver in dispute in 2013, and it has been the subject of several years of legal and regulatory back-and-forth. The case, Diamond Alternative Energy v. EPA, did not address the legality of the waiver itself but whether the parties had the legal standing to bring the case before a judge.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit had dismissed the lawsuit for lack of standing, finding that the challengers failed to show that their injuries would be remedied by favorable ruling.
Congress used the Congressional Review Act in recent weeks to repeal EPA waivers from the Biden administration for three California vehicle emissions rules, including one meant to phase out gasoline-powered cars. The state is suing to undo the repeals.
