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Sponsored by:
Patron Points
who generously
supports
EMA’s
work in our Nation’s
Capital.
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BREAKING NEWS from The
Energy Marketers of America
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October 17, 2024
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Energy Marketers of
America Challenges EPA’s
Heavy Duty Vehicle
Electrification Mandate
Thursday,
October 17, 2024
- The Energy Marketers
of America (EMA)
yesterday filed its
opening brief in a D.C.
Circuit Court of Appeals
lawsuit challenging the
U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s
(EPA) heavy-duty (HD)
vehicle emissions
standards for model
years (MY) 2027-2032.
Recent polling
suggests that Americans
overwhelming oppose the
Biden-Harris
Adminstration’s
electrification
mandates. Despite public
opposition, the
administration continues
advancing these policies
through the rulemaking
process without
congressional
authorization,
undermining consumer
choice and causing
skyrocketing utility
bills.
“Unfortunately,
President Biden’s
aggressive attempt to
electrify the heavy-duty
transportation sector
will limit consumer
choice on cleaner,
greener ICEs, increase
Americans’ utility bills
to subsidize a massive
expansion of the
electric grid for EV
charging, and threaten
the viability and jobs
of small business energy
marketers around the
country, whether they
deliver gasoline, diesel
or renewable fuels like
ethanol, biodiesel and
renewable diesel,” said
EMA President Rob
Underwood.
Today,
heavy duty vehicles make
up just one tenth of one
percent of all heavy
vehicles. Unfortunately,
the Biden-Harris EPA
wants to arbitrarily
increase that figure
exponentially over the
next seven years. Under
the rule challenged by
EMA, electric trucks
would make up 45 percent
of all heavy-duty
vehicles sold by 2032.
According to EMA’s
brief, the rule’s
electrification of the
Nation’s trucking fleet
involves a major policy
question that must be
decided by Congress.
Accordingly, the rule is
lawful only if Congress
clearly authorized EPA
to suppress the
production of
internal-combustion
vehicles in favor of
electric ones. No
statute gives EPA that
highly consequential
power, and EPA has never
claimed the power to
require companies to
sell electric heavy-duty
vehicles. This forced
transition to electric
trucks will increase
transportation costs,
hike prices for basic
goods, and strain the
electric grid. It will
also increase the cost
of procuring the trucks
that State Plaintiffs
challenging the rule
need to carry out
essential state services
like plowing snow and
repairing roads. EMA is
urging the Court to
reverse EPA’s rule.
Additional Legal
Challenges Playing Out
EMA is part of business
groups and States who
have already asked the
courts to review EPA’s
prior tailpipe emissions
standards for model year
2025 and 2026 vehicles
and the Agency’s
reinstatement of
California’s Clean Air
Act waiver to issue
climate-based vehicle
emissions standards.
Whether California can
blaze its own trail on
combatting climate
change also implicates
the “major questions
doctrine,” which holds
that courts should not
defer to agencies on
questions of “vast
economic or political
significance” unless
Congress has provided
explicit authority to
the agencies. The
appeals court will be
asked to decide whether
Congress authorized
California in the Clean
Air Act to regulate
vehicle emissions to
target a major, global
phenomenon with vast
economic and policy
repercussions like
climate change.
Additionally, EMA joined
as amicus curiae
challenge to the
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration’s
fuel-economy standards.
Check out
www.fuelmatters.org for
more information about
clean, green liquid
fuels and the
electrification mandate.
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