On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a major setback to California’s climate justice agenda, siding with the state’s fuel producers in a case that challenges the legality of aggressive environmental regulations targeting gas-powered vehicles. In a 7–2 decision, with only one liberal justice dissenting, the Court ruled that energy producers have the standing to proceed with their lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), potentially unraveling California’s ambitious plan to phase out gasoline vehicles by 2035.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing the majority opinion, criticized the state’s electric vehicle (EV) mandates as “stringent” and potentially “unlawful,” arguing that such regulations unfairly single out an entire industry for elimination under the guise of climate policy.
“The government cannot selectively burden a specific industry through aggressive and possibly unlawful regulation,” Kavanaugh wrote, “and then claim that the very companies affected by that regulation have no right to challenge it in court.”
The Court’s ruling emphasized that California’s mandates—approved by the EPA—could impose sweeping changes on the auto and energy sectors nationwide. Kavanaugh also noted the EPA’s history of shifting interpretations of the Clean Air Act, particularly when it comes to granting California special regulatory powers to curb greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles.
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