BIOMASS HUB

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit (D.C. Circuit) dismissed an American Trucking Association (ATA)  and the Truckload Carriers Association‘s (TCA) claim that the federal government has given California too much leeway to set emissions standards that exceed federal limits for “non-road” diesel engines.

According to the Congressional News Service, the ATA disputed a 2004 rule establishing new standards for “non-road” engines, a category that includes refrigeration units for trucks transporting frozen or perishable goods.  The standards sought to reduce diesel particle emissions 75 percent by 2010, and were phased in by model year.  The rule applied to engines based in and operating out of California.

The EPA approved the standards in 2005, but a congressional waiver allows California, due to “compelling and extraordinary conditions,” to implement emissions standards that are stricter than federal limits.

The trucker associations claimed two key points:

1. The EPA inadequately explained the “extraordinary” conditions in California justifying the rule and that the agency did not consider the full costs of implementation.
2. The California rule amounted to a national regulation, as many trucks pass through California and will be subject to the rule.

In a ruling that could form the basis for a legal argument in favor of California’s LCFS legal challenges (see Is California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard Compatible With RFS 2.0?), the federal appeals court in Washington, D.C. rejected this argument as “weak,” because the rule applies only in California.  Geographic and climatic conditions unique to the state, combined with high population and vehicle use, have led to “well-known” pollution problems there, the ruling states.

The EPA also adequately considered the costs of the rule, estimated at $2,000 to $5,000 per unit, the court determined.  The agency’s conclusion that the rule complied with federal law “was reasonable and reasonably explained,” Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote:

The [federal] Clean Air Act assigns California – not any of the other states and not the federal Environmental Protection Agency – the primary role in setting limits on emissions from in-use non-road engines… Under the Act, each of the other 49 states may adopt a rule identical to California’s.  Otherwise, however, the other states are prohibited from adopting any regulation of emissions from in-use non-road engines…. In 2004, California enacted a rule that regulates the emissions from transportation refrigeration units in trucks.  EPA authorized California’s rule after reviewing it under the relevant statutory criteria.  The American Trucking Associations…has challenged EPA’s decision, arguing that EPA misinterpreted and unreasonably applied the statutory criteria when approving the California rule.  We disagree, and we therefore deny the petition for review.

The D.C. Circuit denied the truckers’ petition for review.

Read the full opinion here.

Image: Flickr/robertjosiah