Attorney General Gentner Drummond has filed a brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to stop the Biden-Harris Administration from imposing a far-reaching electric-vehicle mandate on truck manufacturers.
In April, the Environmental and Protection Agency (EPA) published a rule imposing stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles that effectively force manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal-combustion trucks. In the brief filed last week, Drummond and 23 other state attorneys general argue that the EPA’s electric-truck mandate raises a major question because Congress has not clearly authorized the agency to electrify the nation’s trucking fleet.
“The heavy-duty trucking industry moves $30 billion worth of freight every day,” Drummond said. “This outrageous edict, the product of an overzealous environmental agenda, would cause major disruptions and deliver a significant blow to the U.S. economy. Prices would go up on all types of goods and the stability of our electric grid would be in jeopardy.”
Just one tenth of one percent of all heavy-duty trucks sold today are battery powered, yet the EPA’s rule would increase that number to 45 percent over the next seven years. The brief argues that allowing the electric-truck mandate to stand would short-circuit an ongoing policy debate that should be left to Congress and the states.
In addition to Oklahoma, states joining the brief include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Tennessee, Texas, South Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
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