On May 12, seventeen states filed a petition for review of EPA’s decision to reinstate California’s authority to set its own motor vehicle emissions standards. The petition was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. The states intend to argue that the Clean Air Act’s provision allowing California – and only California – to set its own emissions standards is unconstitutional because it gives California “special treatment.” Twelve of the seventeen states recently made that argument in another pending lawsuit addressing the Clean Air Act’s so-called waiver provision. California, nineteen other states, the District of Columbia, and two cities have already moved to intervene in the D.C. Circuit case in support of EPA’s decision.

Originally published in the Daily Journal - May 24, 2022.