Twenty-Three AGs Defended EPA’s Light-Duty Vehicle Standards in Court

MARCH 21, 2023

California Attorney General Rob Bonta led a coalition of 23 attorneys general—as well as several cities and environmental and public health groups—in filing an intervenor brief defending the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) “Revised 2023 and Later Model Year Light-Duty Vehicle Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards,” which regulate emissions from passenger cars and light trucks. The rule was challenged in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia in February 2022 by a coalition of 15 states led by Texas who claimed that EPA did not act within its Congressional authority. In their intervenor brief, the coalition led by AG Bonta argued that the challenge should be dismissed as untimely because the petitioners did not raise this claim during the comment period of the rulemaking, which is required in order to bring litigation. Moreover, the AGs argued that the claim has no merit as “Congress provided clear authorization for the Rule.”