Supreme Court clears way for fuel producers to challenge California's green guidelines

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that fuel producers can go to court to try to reverse California's limits on vehicle emissions. The Supreme Court did not decide whether the green regulation was legal or not, but only whether it could be sued by companies that manufacture and sell fuels such as gasoline, diesel, ethanol.

The case was elevated to the highest court in the country after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit dismissed a complaint last year by producers against the limits. That court concluded that the producers would not be directly harmed by the emission restrictions, so they did not have standing to sue. Those who could do so were the automakers.

In 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) changed its rules to allow California to establish climate regulations of its own. Gov. Gavin Newsom's administration set limits on automakers' fleet emissions and required them to increase the production of electric vehicles.

In addition to questioning the legality of those directives, the fuel producers claimed that they would be harmed by the forced decrease in combustion cars. Although the appellate court dismissed this argument, SOCTUS has upheld it, allowing the regulation to be reopened in the lower courts.

"The government generally may not target a business or industry through stringent and allegedly unlawful regulation, and then evade the resulting lawsuits by claiming that the targets of its regulation should be locked out of court as unaffected bystanders," Brett Kavanaugh wrote on behalf of the seven judges in the majority.

"EPA and California may or may not prevail on the merits in defending EPA’s approval of the California regulations. But the justiciability of the fuel producers’ challenge to EPA’s approval of the California regulations is evident."

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