Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that his office joined a lawsuit challenging the Biden Administration’s decision to allow California to set burdensome and oppressive emissions standards in the manufacturing of motor vehicles as an exemption under the Clean Air Act.
“Over 40 percent of the nation’s motor vehicles are manufactured in California and the thirteen other states that follow its emission standards. If California is able to set restrictive ‘gas emissions’ standards, manufacturing becomes astronomically expensive, and those additional costs are passed onto consumers, many of which are Missourians,” said Attorney General Schmitt. “The Trump Administration understood that and prohibited California from setting its own oppressive standards. The Biden Administration has since repealed the Trump order and given California the go-ahead to set ‘green’ manufacturing standards, which in reality, crush the average American who is already facing astronomical prices at the pump because of the Biden Administration’s failed policies. As Attorney General, it’s my job to protect Missouri consumers, which is why we’re taking the Biden Administration to court.”
The lawsuit asserts that the Environmental Protection Agency may not waive Clean Air Act preemption for California alone because the statute allowing it to do so violates the States’ equal sovereignty. Further, the EPA acted arbitrarily in failing to address equal-sovereignty issues.
In addition to Missouri, Ohio, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia joined the lawsuit.
The petition can be read at this link.
