Arizona Republican leaders take legal action against federal, California EV mandates

PHOENIX – Arizona Republican leaders are taking legal actions against federal and California electric vehicle mandates they say are harmful government overreach.

State Senate President Warren Petersen, House Speaker Ben Toma and the Arizona Trucking Association filed petitions to review two Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Wednesday.

“The climate change agenda from Democrats imposes expensive and unattainable goals on the automotive and trucking industries, which will undoubtedly lead to soaring consumer prices,” Sen. Frank Carroll, vice chairman of the Arizona Senate Committee on Transportation, Technology & Missing Children, said in a press release. “We don’t have the infrastructure to power these vehicles, and the average working-class citizen or trucking business can’t afford to purchase them.”

Arizona doesn’t have adequate charging infrastructure and power grid capacity to accommodate the mandated changes, according to the release.

🚨FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Senate President @votewarren Sues Biden Administration's EPA, California Over Costly, Economically Damaging Electric Vehicle Mandates pic.twitter.com/It5BNoePx3

— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) May 15, 2024

Which electric vehicle mandates do Arizona Republicans oppose?

The petitioners are asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to declare the EPA rules titled “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3” (petition here) and “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” (petition here) as unlawful.

“These rules exceed the EPA’s statutory authority, are arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion,” Petersen said in the release. “In the absence of our attorney general holding the Biden administration accountable, the Legislature will gladly protect our citizens from this egregious abuse of power.”

Petersen and Toma previously lodged objections to the rules in letters to the EPA last year.

On Monday, Petersen and Toma signed the GOP-controlled Legislature onto a lawsuit against California’s Advanced Clean Fleets regulation. Sixteen states and the Nebraska Trucking Association are the other plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California.

“This attempted ban contravenes controlling law while defying real-world reality and burdening American families and businesses, already suffering from high inflation, with even more costs,” the lawsuit argues.

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