Joining an effort to kill a new Biden-administration regulation to advance the manufacture of electric vehicles, the Columbus-based Buckeye Institute filed a brief against the rule in federal court last week.
In so doing, the pro-free-market think tank joined the state of Texas and other petitioners in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to throw out tightened greenhouse-gas emission standards. The Environmental Protection Agency designed the new standards last year to further President Joe Biden’s objective to make all newly manufactured American vehicles electric-powered by 2030.
“In an attempt to force Americans to buy expensive electric vehicles, the U.S. EPA has misapplied the Clean Air Act to impose the government’s will upon consumers and manufacturers,” Buckeye Institute litigation director David C. Tryon said in a statement. “Instead of admitting the obvious, EPA regulators presume that they know what is best for the American consumer and have devised an illegal bureaucratic boondoggle to force people to buy electric vehicles. The court should rein in this abuse of government power.”
Buckeye believes the White House’s effort to shoehorn more electric automobiles into a market now dominated by gasoline-powered cars runs counter to actual consumer demand. Just days ago, Tryon noted, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology published a study measuring losses of vehicle performance against what consumers gain in terms of improved fuel economy through the use of electric cars. The study found “approximately zero net private consumer benefit from tightened standards.”
From a legal standpoint, Buckeye Institute litigators believe Biden-appointed administrators erred in citing “market failure” to justify a mandate for new emission levels. They emphasize that Congress never permitted the executive branch to utilize this theory to impose new carbon-output standards.
The institute raises what it considers other problems with the White House’s work on this matter, including concern over the White House’s analysis of global greenhouse-gas emissions. According to Buckeye’s brief, the law presumes that the Clean Air Act is oriented toward the domestic consequences of carbon discharge.
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Ohio Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Electric Vehicle” by Rathaphon Nanthapreecha.
