For Immediate Release: 15 November 2007
Contact: Josh Dorner, 202.675.2384
Ninth Circuit Tosses Out Bush Administration
Fuel Economy Standards for Light Trucks
Court Cites Failure to Address Costs of Warming in Its Opinion
San Francisco, Calif.--Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered
a huge victory for the Sierra Club, several other environmental groups, and
several states by voiding the Bush administration’s fuel economy standards
for light trucks. The case was filed May 23, 2006 in response to light
truck fuel economy standards finalized by the administration in April
2006. The suit alleged that the standards failed to follow the process
prescribed by law and that the administration acted arbitrarily and
capriciously in promulgating the light truck standards for 2008-2011.
In 1975, Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) to set new light truck fuel economy standards for
each new model year at the "maximum feasible" level. The light trucks
standards for 2008-2011, at issue in this case, would raise fuel economy by
only 1.8 miles per gallon over that period of time.
Statement of Pat Gallagher, Director of Sierra Club’s Environmental Law
Program
"This decision is a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, its
continued insistence on ignoring the law, and stubborn refusal to take
meaningful steps to address global warming pollution from automobiles.
NHTSA is free to use a cost-benefit analysis to set fuel economy standards,
but today the court told them they cannot put a thumb on the scale by
continuing to ignore the costs of failing to act on global warming.
"As light trucks account for 8 percent of global warming emissions in the
U.S., requiring the administration to go back and make a new standard that
meaningfully addresses these emissions is a huge victory. Likewise,
closing the so-called SUV loophole will also help us lower our global
warming emissions and end our dangerous dependence on oil.
"Finally, the court ordered the administration to go back and do a full
Environmental Impact Statement. The Bush administration can no longer
simply ignore its legal responsibility to do so because it finds it
inconvenient."
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For the full decision, please contact Josh Dorner. A brief excerpt from
today’s decision:
"NHTSA’s failure to monetize the value of carbon emissions
in its determination of the MY 2008-2011 light truck CAFE
standards, failure to set a backstop, failure to revise the passenger
automobile/light truck classifications, and failure to set
fuel economy standards for all vehicles in the 8,500 to 10,000
lb. GVWR class, was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to
the EPCA. We therefore remand to NHTSA to promulgate
new standards consistent with this opinion as expeditiously as
possible and for the earliest model year practicable.
We also hold that the EA was inadequate and Petitioners
have raised a substantial question as to whether the Final
Action may have a significant impact on the environment.
Thus, we remand to NHTSA for the preparation of a full EIS."
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