Arguments have been heard from both sides in Texas’ suit against federal regulators’ plans to limit ozone emissions crossing state lines.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has been considering the Texas Attorney General’s Office lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which was filed in February.
The U.S. Court of Appeals began hearing oral arguments in the case in September, which marks the first significant step in the case.
On the one side, the plaintiff alleges that the EPA’s rejection of Texas’ plan to reduce emissions from drifting into other states was “hyper-politicized.”
A statement from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office claims that the rejection “opens the door for Biden’s EPA to force onto the people of Texas a federal implementation plan,” as previously reported by The Dallas Express.
The lawsuit further asserts that Texas’ plan had been in compliance with the Clean Air Act, which required the EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards to combat air pollution.
These regulations from the EPA come following a revision to the act requiring standards to be set for all automobiles manufactured between 2023 and 2026.
Peter Zalzal, the associate vice president for clean air strategies at the Environmental Defense Fund, said the plan is “vital to protecting public health and helping to address climate change.”
“We have a real opportunity here grounded in technological development, innovation, and advancement to reduce and even eliminate harmful air pollution,” he said to Axios.
The EPA rejected Texas’ proposal in February, arguing that it would not reduce emissions for neighboring states to a suitable level and did not provide “permanent and enforceable emissions controls.”
In addition to rejecting Texas’ plan, the EPA rejected plans from 18 other states including Alabama, California, Illinois, and Oklahoma, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
Over a dozen other states have joined Texas in the lawsuit, which could determine how stringently the EPA can regulate the automobile industry, as reported by Axios.
One area for concern presented by the plaintiffs is that the increase in electric vehicles could cause unnecessary strain on states’ power grids. However, that idea has been disputed by power grid researchers who say that it may actually help strengthen the grids by lowering household energy consumption.
