Industry groups sue over Biden regulation requiring electric school buses, trucks

From The Center Square

A coalition of industry groups have filed a lawsuit challenging a Biden administration rule.

A dozen groups joined together to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for the Biden administration’s new rule, finalized earlier this year, which requires model 2027 trucks to meet strict emissions standards that critics say are meant to push out diesel and gas vehicles and to replace them with electric vehicles.

The EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3” is the rule in question.

“The new standards will be applicable to HD vocational vehicles (such as delivery trucks, refuse haulers, public utility trucks, transit, shuttle, school buses, etc.) and tractors (such as day cabs and sleeper cabs on tractor-trailer trucks),” EPA said.

Critics argue the rules are so strict that the only option will be to go electric, part of a nationwide effort by the Biden administration to push Americans into electric vehicles. However, currently the electric grid could not handle a wholesale transition of to electric vehicles, posing a major infrastructure problem.

Notably, as The Center Square previously reported, a coalition of 19 states filed a complaint with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Tuesday to challenge a recent federal rule giving the federal government broad power over the electric grid.

“FERC has never been granted the authority to revamp the structure of state energy grids or force states and their ratepayers to subsidize large-scale transmission lines that don’t transport enough energy to justify the cost,” the states argue. “This encroachment upon state authority far exceeds FERC’s limited purview and damages the ability of states to regulate their electric grids efficiently, all in the name of advancing costly climate goals.”

The American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers is one of the groups that joined to protest the Biden EPA rule. They argue the EPA overstepped its authority and that it will spike costs for Americans.

“The Heavy Duty Vehicle (HDV) regulation finalized this spring aims to phase out trucks that run on American-made, American-grown diesel, biodiesel, renewable diesel and renewable natural gas,” Rich Moskowitz, AFPM General Counsel, said in a statement. “Americans will pay dearly because of it.”

Moskowitz said the federal government cannot enact such a drastic change without explicit direction from Congress.

“This policy will increase costs for consumers, dramatically strain the U.S. electric grid, contribute to more traffic and congestion on roads, undermine our energy independence, and impact every sector of the U.S. economy,” he said.

Casey Harper

D.C. Bureau Reporter

Related Topics:#BidenEVMandates #CaseyHarper #GreenhouseGasEmissionsStandards #HeavyDutyEV's #IndustryGroupsSueEPA #TheCenterSquare

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Trump declares national energy emergency

Published on January 20, 2025

Todayville

From The Center Square

By Elyse S. Apel

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday night declaring a national energy emergency.

Trump announced the order earlier in the day during his Inauguration Speech.

“We will drill baby drill,” Trump said. “We will bring prices down, fill our strategic reserves up again right to the top, and export American energy all over the world. We will be a rich nation again and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it.”

The order states that high energy prices are an “active threat to the American people.”

“The policies of the previous administration have driven our Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply, and an increasingly unreliable grid, require swift and decisive action,” the order said. “In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency.”

To solve high prices and remedy the “numerous problems” with America’s energy infrastructure, the order stated that the delivery of energy infrastructure must be “expedited” and the nation’s energy supply facilitated “to the fullest extent possible.”

This was one of many executive orders the president signed on his first day in office.

In another order signed Monday night, Trump declared it was time to unleash American energy.

“In recent years, burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations have impeded the development of these resources, limited the generation of reliable and affordable electricity, reduced job creation, and inflicted high energy costs upon our citizens,” the order said. “It is thus in the national interest to unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources.”

All this will be done through encouraging energy exploration, the elimination the electric vehicle mandates, and safeguarding “the American people’s freedom to choose from a variety of goods and appliances.”

The order promises these measures will “restore American prosperity,” “establish our position as the leading producer,” and “protect the United States’s economic and national security and military preparedness.”

In an earlier signing of executive orders in front of a crowd of supporters at the Capital One Arena, Trump signed an executive order withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Accords.

Elyse Apel is an apprentice reporter with The Center Square, covering Georgia and North Carolina. She is a 2024 graduate of Hillsdale College.

Elyse S. Apel

Daily Caller

Trump Takes Firm Stand, Exits Paris Agreement Again

Published on January 20, 2025

Todayville

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Mariane Angela

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Monday to remove the United States from the Paris Agreement.

The United States joins Iran, Libya, and Yemen as countries not part of the Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit global warming, the New York Times reported. Trump had previously pulled out of the agreement during his first term, only to see his successor, former president Joe Biden, re-enter it in 2021 after taking office.

This decision aims to increase fossil fuel production and reduce investment in clean energy technologies like electric vehicles and wind turbines, the outlet stated. Additionally, Trump notified the United Nations, which manages the Paris Agreement, of the U.S.’s withdrawal with a signed letter, setting the official exit to occur one year after its submission.

Trump has said in the past that the U.S. involvement in the Paris agreement harms America’s economic competitiveness and would not make a significant impact on the climate. He also said previously that the agreement was poorly negotiated and did not put American workers first.

The Biden administration implemented new emissions goals as part of its efforts to solidify its climate strategy. The Trump administration plans to deregulate the energy sector and roll back funding from Biden’s key climate initiatives. Since Nov. 5, members of Biden administration have distributed $1.6 billion in “environmental justice” grants, secured significant loans for green energy firms, empowered California regulators to influence the national auto market, and published a detailed analysis on the effects of liquefied natural gas exports, potentially hindering Trump’s efforts to expand them.