Gabby Brown, gabby.brown@sierraclub.org
Washington, DC -- Today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued its opinion following its April order granting Sierra Club and partners’ petition for review of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) attempt to indefinitely delay a planned increase in civil penalties on automakers whose vehicles fail to meet fuel economy standards required under the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) program.
The Obama administration’s NHTSA increased CAFE civil penalties from $5.50 to $14 per tenth of a mile per gallon after Congress ordered all federal agencies to update their penalties for inflation. Last year, the Trump administration’s NHTSA issued an indefinite delay of this increased penalty, handing a gift to automakers and weakening the penalties’ deterrent effect, effectively allowing them to continue making dirtier vehicles that fail to comply with fuel efficiency standards.
The Sierra Club, NRDC, and Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in response, opposing this arbitrary delay. On April 23, 2018, the Court granted the petition for review and vacated the delay. Today, the court issued its opinion, ruling in favor of the environmental groups on all the claims briefed in this litigation. The opinion confirmed that NHTSA lacks statutory authority to indefinitely delay the effective date of the increased penalty and that the agency failed to provide notice and comment, as required under the Administrative Procedure Act.
Read the court’s opinion here and judgment here.
“Compliance with fuel economy standards means cleaner air, a safer climate, and lower costs for consumers, and high civil penalties promote compliance with those standards,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Alejandra Núñez. “Today, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals fully confirmed that the Trump administration’s indefinite delay of the Obama administration’s rule increasing civil penalties for CAFE violations is unlawful, for exactly the same reasons we argued in this litigation. Now, automakers clearly must observe the increased penalty, which will result in compliance with the CAFE standards.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3 million members and supporters. In addition to helping people from all backgrounds explore nature and our outdoor heritage, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.