WASHINGTON, D.C.— Growth Energy, the nation’s largest biofuel trade association, filed an amicus brief in a consolidated set of court challenges to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA’s) Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) Standards for Passenger Cars and Light Trucks for Model Years 2027-2032, which is being litigated in the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
In its brief, Growth Energy argues that the CAFE standards violate the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA), in particular the EPCA’s prohibition on using electric vehicles (EVs) as a “baseline” to set fuel-economy standards. Growth also notes that the standards functionally serve as an EV mandate and unlawfully fail to take the benefits of biofuels into consideration. NHTSA’s “one-track focus on EVs leads to rules that are arbitrary, inconsistent with law,” including the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), “and miss important benefits of other technologies while also failing to minimize costs,” Growth writes in the brief.
“NHTSA has continually failed to properly consider the important role that biofuels like bioethanol play in advancing the fuel economy goals of EPCA and the energy security, environmental, and rural economic development goals of the RFS,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “The CAFE standards should recognize and embrace the benefits of biofuels, a uniquely-American resource that can help NHTSA accomplish its goals without pushing one vehicle technology over all others.”
Read Growth Energy’s brief here.
