Montgomery, AL – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, along with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, announced a legal action against the Biden Administration’s latest fuel efficiency standards for vehicles. The lawsuit, joined by 26 states, aims to block the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) stringent fuel efficiency requirements in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
The Biden Administration’s new rule mandates a significant increase in the average fuel economy of passenger cars and light trucks within the next decade. This regulation is designed to push auto manufacturers towards producing more electric vehicles, a shift that the states involved in the lawsuit argue will bypass market dynamics, raise costs for families, and strain the reliability of the electric grid.
Attorney General Steve Marshall criticized the new rule, stating, “The Biden Administration says that its new fuel-efficiency rule gives Americans ‘more choice’ and promotes ‘energy independence,’ when the truth is exactly the opposite. This is a continuation of the Biden Administration’s war against American energy, and the American people are feeling the effects. With gas prices rising and new regulations piling up on manufacturers, consumers end up paying the price during a time of unprecedented inflation.”
The coalition of states challenging the rule includes Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming. These states argue that the new standards are unworkable and impose undue burdens on consumers and manufacturers.
