On April 29, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Automobile Dealers Association lacked standing to challenge California's rules for GHG emissions from new vehicles. Chamber of Commerce v. EPA, No. 08-1237 (D.C. Cir. April 29, 2011). Petitioners contended that California lacked justification for promulgating its 2004 standards for fleet-average GHG emissions for new vehicles. They argued that the regulation, which took effect in 2009, would hurt their members in California and other states that have signed onto the California rules because it would increase the manufacturing cost of vehicles and dictate the mix of vehicles with which auto manufacturers would supply them, which could cost them sales if the mix does not match market preferences.
The D.C. Circuit never reached the question of whether the California rules are justified because it concluded that the auto dealers had not asserted an imminent or actual injury that was fairly traceable to implementation of the state rules and could be redressed by a favorable court decision. The court focused on the petitioners' declaration that they might suffer injury if the state regulations caused an increase in manufacturing costs or motivated manufacturers to alter their vehicle mix, and it found the claim too speculative. The court also observed that at least some automakers appeared to be voluntarily decreasing the GHG emissions of their fleets, so the California regulation could not fairly be said to cause the injury complained of; accordingly, a favorable court decision would not change the price or mix of vehicles available to dealers. Lastly, the court found significant that EPA and California had subsequently agreed to coordinate emissions standards. That pact, the court ruled, mooted the issue of whether California was justified in establishing its own standards. Because the federal standards set the same GHG emissions levels as California did, the California standards no longer had any impact on the dealers and were not the source of any injury.
The opinion in Chamber of Commerce v. EPA is available at: http://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/BA9699870A63607C852578810051B160/$file/09-1237-1305573.pdf