The U.S. Supreme Court dealt a blow to California’s climate agenda on Friday, issuing a 7-2 ruling that allows the state’s energy producers to move forward with their lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The decision, which saw one of the Court’s three liberal justices join the majority, challenges California’s regulations requiring a certain number of electric vehicles to be sold by 2035—the state’s target year for achieving carbon neutrality.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority, described the electric vehicle mandates as “stringent” and suggested they may represent an “unlawful” attempt by the government to single out a specific industry.
“The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders,” Kavanagh, a Trump appointee, wrote.
“In light of this Court’s precedents and the evidence before the Court of Appeals, the fuel producers established Article III standing to challenge EPA’s approval of the California regulations,” Kavanaugh added.
Critically, the “EPA has repeatedly altered its legal position on whether the Clean Air Act authorizes California regulations targeting greenhouse-gas emissions from new motor vehicles,” he noted further.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump signed three resolutions rolling back major portions of California’s green energy mandates, significantly undermining the state’s ability to achieve net-zero emissions within the next decade. The action dealt a major setback to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, a likely 2028 presidential contender who has championed what he called the nation’s most ambitious climate legislation.
“This case involves California’s 2012 request for EPA approval of new California regulations,” Kavanaugh added. “As relevant here, those regulations generally require automakers (i) to limit average greenhouse-gas emissions across their fleets of new motor vehicles sold in the State and (ii) to manufacture a certain percentage of electric vehicles as part of their vehicle fleets.”
Chet Thompson, the president and CEO of American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), which initiated the lawsuit, celebrated the ruling. “The Supreme Court put to rest any question about whether fuel manufacturers have a right to challenge unlawful electric vehicle mandates,” he said in a statement to the Daily Caller.
“California’s EV mandates are unlawful and bad for our country. Congress did not give California special authority to regulate greenhouse gases, mandate electric vehicles or ban new gas car sales—all of which the state has attempted to do through its intentional misreading of statute,” Thompson added.