EDF, Allies Defend States’ Clean Car Authority to D.C. Circuit

(Washington, D.C. – October 14, 2020) A broad coalition of 23 states and cities, regional clean air authorities, and environmental advocates – including EDF – laid out a detailed case for D.C. Circuit showing why the Trump administration should not be allowed to interfere with states’ long-standing authority to reduce dangerous pollution from cars.

“Cleaner cars and trucks will protect the health and safety of Americans, and help us address the dire threat of climate change. States have been leading the way toward cleaner vehicles for our future, and the law is clear that they can – and should – keep leading,” said EDF lead attorney Peter Zalzal.

The coalition filed its reply brief yesterday in one of several lawsuits stemming from the Trump administration’s attempt to rollback American’s popular and successful Clean Car Standards.

This lawsuit focuses on the administration’s attempt to eliminate states’ authority to set protective clean car standards – authority that is part of the Clean Air Act and has been in use for more than half a century. California and 13 other states have committed to strong clean car standards; more than a third of U.S. new car sales are covered by those standards.

EDF sued to defend states’ clean car authority, along with the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin; the Commonwealths of Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia; the District of Columbia; the cities of Los Angeles and New York; the South Coast Air Quality Management District, Bay Area Air Quality Management District, and Sacramento Air Quality Management District; and the Union of Concerned Scientists, Center for Biological Diversity, Conservation Law Foundation, Environment America, Environmental Law and Policy Center, Natural Resources Defense Council, Public Citizen and Sierra Club.

A coalition of power companies, the Advanced Energy Economy and the National Coalition for Advanced Transportation also sued and filed their reply brief yesterday.

EDF is also a party to the lawsuit opposing the Trump administration’s rollback of the national Clean Car Standards, an action that will cause more than 18,000 premature deaths, add one and a half billion metric tons of climate pollution to our air, and cost Americans $244 billion more at the gas pump.