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Ninth Circuit Tosses Out Bush Administration Fuel Economy Standards for Light Trucks Court Cites Failure to Address Costs of Warming in Its Opinion San Francisco, Calif.--Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals delivered a huge victory for the Sierra Club, several other environmental groups, and several states by voiding the Bush administration’s fuel economy standards for light trucks. The case was filed May 23, 2006 in response to light truck fuel economy standards finalized by the administration in April 2006. The suit alleged that the standards failed to follow the process prescribed by law and that the administration acted arbitrarily and capriciously in promulgating the light truck standards for 2008-2011. In 1975, Congress directed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to set new light truck fuel economy standards for each new model year at the "maximum feasible" level. The light trucks standards for 2008-2011, at issue in this case, would raise fuel economy by only 1.8 miles per gallon over that period of time. Statement of Pat Gallagher, Director of Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program "This decision is a stinging rebuke to the Bush administration, its continued insistence on ignoring the law, and stubborn refusal to take meaningful steps to address global warming pollution from automobiles. NHTSA is free to use a cost-benefit analysis to set fuel economy standards, but today the court told them they cannot put a thumb on the scale by continuing to ignore the costs of failing to act on global warming. "As light trucks account for 8 percent of global warming emissions in the U.S., requiring the administration to go back and make a new standard that meaningfully addresses these emissions is a huge victory. Likewise, closing the so-called SUV loophole will also help us lower our global warming emissions and end our dangerous dependence on oil. "Finally, the court ordered the administration to go back and do a full Environmental Impact Statement. The Bush administration can no longer simply ignore its legal responsibility to do so because it finds it inconvenient." ------- For the full decision, please contact Josh Dorner. A brief excerpt from today’s decision: "NHTSA’s failure to monetize the value of carbon emissions in its determination of the MY 2008-2011 light truck CAFE standards, failure to set a backstop, failure to revise the passenger automobile/light truck classifications, and failure to set fuel economy standards for all vehicles in the 8,500 to 10,000 lb. GVWR class, was arbitrary and capricious and contrary to the EPCA. We therefore remand to NHTSA to promulgate new standards consistent with this opinion as expeditiously as possible and for the earliest model year practicable. We also hold that the EA was inadequate and Petitioners have raised a substantial question as to whether the Final Action may have a significant impact on the environment. Thus, we remand to NHTSA for the preparation of a full EIS." # # #
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