Sierra Club, Earthjustice and Allies Sue EPA over Attack on California’s Waiver

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Sierra Club and Earthjustice, together with a broad coalition of public health and environmental groups, filed a lawsuit against former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) challenging its revocation of California’s waiver for its greenhouse gas emission standards for new motor vehicles, as well as the state’s zero emission vehicle (ZEV) standards.
 
This lawsuit against EPA is separate from the lawsuit filed in September, where Sierra Club and its allies challenged the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) decision to preempt the California greenhouse gas and ZEV standards.
 
The filing comes on the same day as the start of the L.A. Auto Show, where automakers like General Motors, Toyota, and Fiat-Chrysler are in full greenwashing mode a few weeks after siding with the Trump administration in the NHTSA preemption litigation.

“Today’s lawsuit is the latest in a legal battle to preserve environmental safeguards that are critical for the climate,” said the Sierra Club’s Chief Climate Counsel Joanne Spalding. “The Trump Administration is on the wrong side of history for its unprecedented move to revoke California’s long-standing waiver under the Clean Air Act to set more stringent vehicle emissions standards. The Sierra Club will continue to challenge the administration — and automakers siding with them — every step of the way in the courts and on the streets in order to preserve states’ rights to protect their communities from pollution.”