The Bush Administration is backing a lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court that seeks to overturn a California clean-air agency's attempt to curb pollution from some trucks
, buses and other fleet vehicles.
The U.S. Department of Justice urged the court to overturn the South Coast Air Quality Management District's clean fleet rules for the greater Los Angeles metropolitan region. The laws, adopted in 2000 and 2001, require operators to buy cleaner-burning models when they replace or add vehicles to their fleets.
The laws have resulted in the replacement of hundreds of diesel trucks, buses and other vehicles with models that burn natural gas and other alternative fuels, according to the management district, which is charged with cleaning up the air in much of Southern California.
Two industry groups, the Western States Petroleum Association and the Engine Manufacturers Association, sued the management district in U.S. District Court. The clean-air agency prevailed in that court and in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The plaintiffs then appealed to the Supreme Court, which is expected to hear the case in December.
The Justice Department’s friend-of-the-court brief argues that under the federal Clean Air Act, states and local jurisdictions cannot establish their own emission standards for new vehicles without getting permission from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The management district maintains the rules do not set emissions standards. Instead, the rules ask fleet owners to choose from among the cleanest engine technologies available, and allow exceptions if no alternatives can be located. The Engine Manufacturers Association has argued that the rules constitute a de facto ban on certain engines and vehicles.