On May 2, 2022, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published their new, stronger, corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards for model years (MY) 2024-2026 originally announced April 1. The final...more
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) just issued a rule finalizing significantly increased civil penalties for violations of Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for passenger cars. The NHTSA...more
A group of 13 Democratic AGs, led by California AG Rob Bonta and New York AG Letitia James, sent a letter to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) to restore penalties for automakers that failed...more
On August 10, 2021, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the federal corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) emissions standards in model years (MY)...more
California and five major automakers finalize deal on vehicle emissions standards - The New York Times – August 17 - The California Air Resources Board (CARB) this Monday finalized “Settlement Agreements” with five of...more
On March 31, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation, acting through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), finalized a rulemaking that the agencies described...more
Led by California, 23 states, including Massachusetts, have sued the Trump administration challenging new federal regulations that strip the states’ authority to set their own vehicle emissions standards. On December 3, 2019,...more
Multi-state coalition’s lawsuit challenges Trump EPA withdrawal of California Clean Air Act waiver. EPA formally announced its decision to withdraw California’s 2013 Clean Air Act waiver, which allowed the state to set its...more
Thirteen states filed a Petition for Review of a Final Rule of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“Petition”) challenging a rule promulgated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”). ...more
Focus - EPA will not approve labels that say Roundup chemical causes cancer - U.S. News & World Report – August 8 - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this Thursday that it will not approve...more
An en banc Ninth Circuit recently reinstated a nationwide class settlement that resolved consumer claims related to several of Hyundai’s and Kia’s advertised fuel economy standards. Joining several other circuits, the court...more
On Thursday, August 2, 2018, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jointly proposed a rule to freeze the fuel...more
In a split panel, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a district court’s certification of a nationwide class action settlement because the lower court failed to conduct a sufficient predominance inquiry under Rule...more
If it seems like déjà vu, it’s not just you: SUVs are again leading the charge on new vehicle sales. Buoyed by low gas prices and growing millennial families, SUV sales have increased by 6 percent from 2016 to 2017 (through...more
Turbulence in global fuel economy standards are putting new pressures on the automotive industry to shift its thinking on gasoline and electrification. In late July, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)...more
One of the more aggressive steps taken by the Obama administration to reduce carbon emissions was to have the EPA set an ambitious target for Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards: 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. In...more
Class action filings during the fall of 2016 continued to be dominated by Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) cases. As of October 1, 2016, nearly 150 cases have been filed; these filings are both daily in frequency...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) published a joint set of greenhouse gas and fuel efficiency standards for new medium and heavy-duty vehicles and...more
There certainly has been plenty of bad emissions news in the past few months in the Automotive Industry. How about some good news? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently reported that “Automakers Beat...more
As the automotive industry rebounds from its recessionary levels to an all time record level of spending on vehicles and healthy profitability, one of the key drivers of the increased vehicles sales has been increased...more
As government mandates like Corporate Average Fuel Economy targets make electric cars more attractive to manufacturers looking to meet these standards, it is worth asking how consumers are responding to these vehicles as they...more
On February 26, 2015, the Oregon State Senate passed Senate Bill 324 (SB 324), a measure that would require fuel producers to reduce the amount of carbon in car and truck fuels....more
The EPA announced, on February 23, 2015, that it will release new guidelines for vehicle fuel economy testing. The new guidelines will apply next year and will address how vehicles should be prepared and broken in before fuel...more