Input Stories

 
The Supreme Court has dismissed a challenge to California’s vehicle emissions standards—but it has agreed to hear a suit against the state’s ban of gas-powered vehicles (CNN). 
 
What’s going on: The court “declined Monday to take up an appeal from conservative states challenging California’s ability to establish strict vehicle emission rules that effectively set the standard for the rest of the nation.”

• The decision—which “effectively leaves in place a lower court ruling that upheld those regulations”—comes just days after the court agreed to hear, early next year, a suit brought by traditional energy sector firms against California’s “zero emissions” rule for new vehicles.  

The background: In 2022, California regulators voted to ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035.  
 
Why it’s important: “What California decides has major implications for the U.S. car market given the size of the state’s economy and the fact that more than a dozen other states have followed its lead.”  
 
Our view: While manufacturers support consumer choice in the vehicle marketplace, having multiple emissions-related rules in place in the U.S. is confusing to consumers and manufacturers alike, and it hamstrings U.S. manufacturing competition. That’s why the NAM has urged President-elect Trump to adopt realistic, achievable standards.

• “Auto manufacturers operate over long planning horizons to develop, test and deliver their products to market, and what is most critical for the industry is ensuring regulatory certainty and stability,” the NAM and more than 100 other manufacturing groups told the president-elect and his Cabinet earlier this month. “Whiplashing regulations between administrations makes it extremely difficult for auto manufacturers to comply given that companies often plan five or more model years out.”
• “Additionally, regulations that either are unrealistic … or that undo regulations that companies have already made investment and product decisions to comply with fail to provide the policy framework to allow auto manufacturing in America to compete globally at the highest level.”