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Lawsuit challenges EPA’s EV mandate

A lawsuit recently filed in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will challenge the U.S. EPA’s light and medium-duty vehicle emissions standards for model years 2027-2032.

Travis Cushman, deputy general counsel for the American Farm Bureau Federation, says the EPA exceeded its congressional authority with the regulation. “What the rule does is it basically requires the emissions to get so low that the only way you could possibly comply is that the manufacturers switched their fleets to electric vehicles.”

AFBF, the National Corn Growers Association, and six auto dealers joined the American Petroleum Institute in filing the lawsuit. In March, the Biden administration finalized new federal vehicle emissions standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles that require 68% of new passenger vehicles and 43% of new medium-duty trucks and vans to be electric by 2032.

Cushman tells Brownfield the EPA’s standard negatively impacts farmers and the biofuels industry. “It makes cars and farm trucks a lot more expensive. The charging infrastructure doesn’t really exist out in the country for these kinds of electric vehicles. And so it really puts farmers at a disadvantage.”

He says an opinion from the court is expected in early 2025.

AUDIO: AFBF’s Travis Cushman 6-17-2024