Last Friday, April 29th, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed a challenge to EPA’s “California waiver”. That waiver permitted California to set its own greenhouse-gas emissions for new vehicles. Because CO2 was the major gas that California was seeking to control, its rules amounted to a new, more stringent automotive fuel-economy standard. And because at least 14 other states had adopted California’s standard, its actions may well have effectively replaced the federal CAFE standard with a higher one set in Sacramento.
The California waiver has a complicated history. CARB (the California Air Resources Board) originally filed its waiver request with EPA in late 2005, claiming that the state had a uniquely compelling need to control atmospheric CO2 levels. (The fact that the alleged problem at issue is global warming, not California warming, apparently didn’t faze CARB.) After deliberating for more than two years, EPA denied CARB’s request, finding that it hadn’t demonstrated any extraordinary conditions to justify the waiver.
But in January 2009, one day after President Obama was sworn in, CARB resubmitted its request, and EPA granted the waiver several months later. Then, in April 2010, the Administration, California and the auto industry struck a deal which imposed a higher set of federal fuel economy standards through model year 2016. During that time, California agreed to merge its own newly-approved standards into the federal program, giving the auto industry the national uniformity in standards that it dearly wanted.
As part of the deal, the automakers agreed not to litigate the California waiver. The Chamber of Commerce and NADA (the National Auto Dealers Association), however, filed their own lawsuit, and it was this case that the D.C. Circuit dismissed last week. The court did not reach the merits of the case, ruling instead that neither party had standing to bring the action because they had not shown injury to their members.
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