A coalition of 24 Republican state attorneys general filed a petition for review yesterday to challenge the Biden Administration’s new regulation of emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.
The review was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and seeks to stop the Biden Administration from imposing an electric-vehicle mandate on truck manufacturers.
The States’ D.C. Circuit suit targets the federal Environmental and Protection Agency’s rule imposing stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles that effectively forces manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal-combustion trucks. Electric trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them are virtually nonexistent in the United States. They also have shorter ranges and require longer stops. The Environmental Protection Agency’s rule would require manufacturers to make fewer vehicles available with the preferred internal-combustion technology.
“Under the guise of environmental concern, the Biden Administration continues steamrolling ahead with impractical emission mandates that threaten American manufacturing, regional economies, and the long-term sustainability of our electric power grid,” said Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares.
The States argue that the Biden Administration has exceeded its statutory authority in attempting to force a transition to electric trucks. In addition to its legal flaws, the regulation defies reality. Electric trucks are inefficient and costly and will harm Virginians by increasing the costs of interstate transportation, raising prices for goods and burdening the electric power grid, according to the coalition.
Attorneys general from the following states joined the lawsuit against the Biden Administration: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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