The brief was in support of a lawsuit from 16 states over federal emissions standards.
QUICK FACTS:
- Six states have filed a brief in support of a lawsuit brought by 16 states about the Environmental Protection Agency’s final rule on vehicle emission standards.
- The brief was led by West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and signed on by Kansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Virginia, and Wyoming.
- In the brief, the supporting states called out an “overbroad, top-down regulatory scheme that tries to force people into electric vehicles while disregarding that mandate’s serious consequences does no one any good.”
DETAILS OF THE ORIGINAL SUIT:
- The lawsuit was filed by more than a dozen states and pushes back against the final rule by the EPA on greenhouse gas emission standards for passenger cars and light trucks for 2023 through 2026.
- The states took exception to the final rule which is being called the “strongest vehicle emissions standards ever established” that the suit claims would “leverage advances in clean car technology to unlock $190 billion in net benefits to Americans, including reducing climate pollution, improving public health, and saving drivers money at the pump.”
- The states that initially filed the challenge include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah.
BACKGROUND:
- In October of this year, Florida’s fire chief warned that electric vehicles were exploding due to recent damage from Hurricane Ian.
- “There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start,” Florida’s chief fire marshal Jimmy Patronis tweeted. “That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale.”
- According to Patronis, EV batteries that have been submerged in water after the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to fires.
