Florida AG Leads Coalition of 25 States Suing Biden Admin Over Emissions Rule

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody is leading a 25-state coalition in suing the Biden administration over its new emissions regulations, which aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from lightweight vehicles and stimulate electric vehicle (EV) sales.

Joining in the lawsuit are the attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The EPA’s new rules are designed to cut tailpipe emissions from cars and light trucks by almost 50 percent relative to 2026 levels by 2032 and to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 7.2 billion tons through the year 2055.

The EPA notes that the biggest contributor to GHG is the transportation sector, representing 29 percent of total GHG emissions in the United States. The largest contributors of GHG within the transportation sector are light-duty vehicles, putting out about 58 percent of the emissions sector-wide and about 16.5 percent of America’s total GHG.

The EPA also suggests that the reduction in emissions from motor vehicles—which is linked to serious health problems, such as respiratory and cardiovascular illness, and cancer—will ultimately result in “substantial improvements in public health and welfare.”

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12/22/2023

“Addressing these public health and welfare needs will require substantial additional reductions in criteria pollutants and GHG emissions from the transportation sector,” the agency added.

Attorneys general in the coalition argue that the new emissions standards demonstrate the administration’s capitulation to the demands of environmental activists, indicative of a socialist regime that forces the public to purchase products they neither want nor can afford.

Ms. Moody calls the new rule unrealistic, ill-timed, and unwelcome.

“Biden’s EPA continues to push radical Green New Deal policies at a time when the infrastructure is not in place and Americans are struggling economically due to Biden-created inflation,” she said in an April 18 press release.

“We continue to fight Biden’s short-sighted and out-of-touch policies, taking legal action today to protect Americans from these outrageous emissions standards,” she said.

‘Flies in the Face of the Free Market’

Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor said in a statement that the “disconnect between this administration and the American people could not be more apparent.” He noted how neither the public nor the infrastructure are prepared for such a “massive shift” toward the dominant use of EVs.

Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador said forcing manufacturers to produce EVs and forcing Americans to purchase them is “a basic pillar of a socialist centrally planned economy.”

“It flies in the face of the free market where the best products should be supported by the demand of the consumer, not the narrow agendas of environmental activists pulling the puppet strings of the Biden Administration,“ he said, adding that ”Idaho drivers aren’t buying the cars, and they aren’t buying the excuses.”

Citing many problems inherent in the president’s plans, and the additional losses to be suffered by manufacturers being forced to comply with his regulations, the petitioners in the coalition are asking the court to “declare unlawful and vacate the agency’s final action.”

The Epoch Times reached out to the EPA for comment.

Not the First Time

At the direction of Congress, the EPA has been setting emissions standards for motor vehicles since 1971. The earliest standards, for light-duty vehicles for hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxide, required a 90 percent reduction in emissions.

This is not the first time a collection of Republican attorneys general have combined forces to use the legal system as a means to challenge the various iterations of the Biden administration’s climate agenda.

Almost half (48 percent) said they would not buy an electric vehicle, up from the 41 percent who said the same the year before. The number of people saying they are seriously considering the purchase of an EV dropped from 43 percent in 2023 to 35 percent.