Determined to thwart federal regulations they say would cripple the energy industry, seven oil and natural gas associations in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma have appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, DC, to protect the rights of Americans to choose between electric power. vehicles and those with a gasoline engine.
Filing amicus curiae, or “friend of the court” briefs, the groups say the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration would go beyond their congressional authority to force automakers to modify their fleets away from vehicles powered by internal combustion engines towards fleets. dominated by electric vehicles.
They say the agencies would also be wrong to mandate their greenhouse gas tailpipe standards and set vehicle emissions control standards under the federal Clean Air Act that are heavily biased and favorable to electric vehicles. on purpose against vehicles with an internal combustion engine.
“The auto industry has largely capitulated to the new regulations and indicates that it will continue to build more and more electric and hybrid vehicles to meet the standards, but the oil and gas industry clearly does not have that option.” , he said. Ed Longanecker, president of the Texas Association of Independent Producers and Copyright Owners, of Austin. “The destruction of the internal combustion engine market would devastate our industry and a substantial portion of national and state economies and populations that depend directly on or are heavily affiliated with the oil and gas industry.
“Furthermore, the impact of multiple tax bases at the federal, state and local levels would undermine a number of vital public programs, including schools and health care.”
TIPRO has joined the appeals by the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association, the Petroleum Alliance of Oklahoma, the Texas Association of Manufacturers, the Texas Royalty Council and the American Austin-based Royalty Council.
“The amicus briefs detail these inevitable negative impacts and point out that the term ‘zero emission vehicles’ or ZEVs is being used to mislead the general public,” Longanecker said. “There is nothing zero-emission about these vehicles from a cradle-to-grave standpoint from the Third World mining of the various key minerals that go into their production through the production process itself and the generation of electricity that must be produced to power a massive electric vehicle in the US fleet.
“Because of the auto industry’s acquiescence to these rule changes, the burden is on the oil and gas industry to point out the various statutory and constitutional flaws in these new rules.”
In Ohio v. EPA, Longanecker said, Nashville, Tenn.-based attorney James K. Vines argues that the state of California should not be able to use the California Exemption Reinstatement Rule and the ‘clean air to force ZEVs instead of gasoline. motorized vehicles.
“The Clean Air Act allows other states to follow California’s lead, and at this time 17 states and the District of Columbia have adopted California’s EV-ZEV mandates,” Longanecker said. “The result of this rule if allowed to go into effect is that it would destroy 40 percent of the national demand for gasoline in the near future.
“Obviously, this would have a catastrophic impact on the oil and gas industry in Texas, as well as the economies and supply chains of all oil and gas states and the national economy.”
Citing constitutional grounds and the limited reach of the Clean Air Act, energy organizations are challenging the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Tailpipe Standards Rule in Texas vs. 50% or more of new vehicles sold by 2030.
“EPA Administrator Michael Regan went further and said his goal is an all-electric vehicle fleet,” Longanecker said. “We are arguing that these rules should be struck down for a variety of defects under the Clean Air Act, the Energy Conservation and Policy Act, and the US Constitution.
“The oil and gas associations’ briefs add the additional and critical argument that the rules fail constitutionally under the Greater National Policy Question doctrine. Recently, a six-justice majority of the Supreme Court struck down a similar rule of the EPA affecting electric power generation in West Virginia vs.
Vines argues that the energy industry “is, without a doubt, the basis of the economies of the states reflected by amici.
“The executive branch’s effort to drastically reduce or even eliminate internal combustion engine vehicles nationwide and replace them with electric or zero-emission vehicles is a clear and present danger to these states and the prosperity and the survival of the nation,” the lawyer said. “The resulting massive damage to the Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma economies and public welfare, along with the negative domestic effects, clearly encompasses an important issue of national policy.
“Because there is no clear congressional authorization in the Clean Air Act for the EPA to take such sweeping action, the rules fail constitutionally under the main issue doctrine and should be struck down. The EPA , with NHTSA, is trying to exercise illegal power to unilaterally eliminate the internal combustion engine.
“Congress has never authorized the electric vehicle mandate that the Executive Branch has directed.”
