TPPF Files Lawsuit to Halt EPA Violation of Clean Air Act

AUSTIN – The Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), through its litigation Center for the American Future, filed a lawsuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of standards issued by the Air Resources Board for tractors, excavators, and other nonroad vehicles. The case, Dalton Trucking v. EPA, was filed Tuesday with the 9th Circuit federal appellate court in San Francisco. The petitioners argue that EPA violated the Clean Air Act by rubber-stamping California’s stringent standards without inquiring whether those standards were actually needed to protect the health and welfare of California residents, as required by the Act.

            “This lawsuit seeks to enforce the rule of law under our system of limited government, separation of powers, and checks and balances,” said Hadzi-Antich, senior attorney with the Center for the American Future at TPPF. “Unfortunately, the EPA has become a law unto itself, as it seeks to regulate virtually every nook and cranny of our nation’s economic life, under the guise of protecting the environment. This has been especially troubling over the past decade, as the EPA has grown into a bureaucratic behemoth employing tens of thousands of people in Washington D.C. and regional offices throughout the nation.”

            Hadzi-Antich continued, “In this case, TPPF represents nine California small businesses and their trade associations that have been severely injured by EPA’s action to rubber-stamp a costly and unnecessary regulation of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) governing nonroad vehicles such as tractors and excavators. EPA’s action directly contradicts the requirements of the Clean Air Act, under which California must show 'compelling and extraordinary circumstances' justifying the need for mobile source emissions standards that differ from the federal ones. CARB failed to show such a need for these regulations. Accordingly, EPA had a duty to reject these job-killing emissions standards proffered by CARB.”

            For more information and to view the lawsuit, please visit: http://txpo.li/dalton-trucking-v-epa