US sues California over truck emission standards, joins four manufacturers challenging state law News
Dllu, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
US sues California over truck emission standards, joins four manufacturers challenging state law

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) filed suit against California on Thursday, seeking to prevent the state from enforcing its own emission standards for heavy trucks. The suit came three days after major manufacturers, including Daimler and Volvo, filed a related complaint against the California Air Resources Board (CARB), stating that they were “caught in a crossfire between two sovereigns who are openly hostile to one another.”

The new complaint is one of several related filings. On August 13, the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce filed a memorandum against Steven Cliff, the executive officer of the CARB, in support of the DOJ’s suit. A connected complaint seeks declaratory and injunctive relief against Cliff, saying, “Defendant Cliff’s ongoing defiance of federal constitutional and statutory law must stop: His enforcement of preempted California emissions standards grossly intrudes on the exclusive authority of the federal government… And it harms ordinary citizens from coast to coast by diminishing the use of fossil-fuel powered heavy-duty trucks.”

According to a press release from the DOJ, “These actions advance President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to end the electric vehicle (EV) mandate, level the regulatory playing field, and promote consumer choice in motor vehicles.”

The DOJ seeks to protect federal sovereign interests and its authority to mandate uniform vehicle emission standards through the Clean Air Act (CAA). The government seeks permission to intervene under rules 24(a) or (b) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.

On August 11, the truck manufacturers filed suit against the CARB. The manufacturers are part of the Clean Truck Partnership (CTP), an agreement with the CARB. As part of the agreement, the companies promised to meet state vehicle emission standards and adopt zero-emission technology, regardless of any challenges to California’s authority under the CAA. In exchange, the truck companies received flexibility and support in meeting those standards.

However, Congress passed the Congressional Review Act in July, which repealed Section 209 of the CAA. This section allowed the federal government to grant waivers to California for the CAA. Under the former President Joe Biden’s administration, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted such a waiver, allowing California to set its own emission standards for heavy trucks.

The Congressional Review Act repealed this waiver. On June 12, California joined 10 other states in suing the Trump administration, challenging the legality of the act. While the case is pending, California has continued to try to enforce the CTP. On August 7, Adam Gustafson, the acting assistant attorney general for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the manufacturers, in which the companies were ordered to end CTP compliance.

In another related suit, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in April in which fuel industry groups complained about another waiver granted to California for its Advanced Clean Cars Program. The waiver had been granted by the EPA in 2013, revoked by the Trump administration in 2019, and reinstated by the Biden administration in 2022. The court rendered its opinion in Diamond Alternative Energy, LLC V. EPA in June, finding that fuel producers have Article III standing to challenge EPA’s approval of the California regulations.

THIS DAY @ LAW

28 countries unite against Axis Powers

On January 2, 1942, twenty-eight countries formally agreed not to make peace with the Axis Powers separately. At the time, all twenty-eight were fighting against the Axis as Allies in World War II. The agreement was part of the Declaration by the United Nations, signed the previous day. In December of 1941, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt referred to this group of allies as the "United Nations."

US government agents arrested thousands in Palmer raids

On January 2, 1920, over 500 government agents acting on the direction of US Attorney General Mitchell Palmer carried out a massive counter-terror operation in 33 US cities, arresting between six and ten thousand aliens suspected of Communism, radicalism and anarchism. The "Palmer Raids" and the detentions and deportation proceedings that followed them were denounced by a number of prominent lawyers and judges who later established the American Civil Liberties Union. Read an excerpt from Attorney General Palmer's 1920 article, The Case Against the 'Reds' and learn more about the Palmer Raids and the Red Scare of 1919-20.