West LA Times

Apr 11 2024

From vehicle emissions to PFAS, it’s a busy week for EPA watchers. UCLA experts weigh in below.

On Tuesday, a federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., upheld California's authority to regulate vehicle emissions more strictly than the federal government. Ann Carlson, UCLA environmental law professor and former acting administrator of NHTSA, expressed her satisfaction with the decision in Ohio v. Environmental Protection Agency, emphasizing the significance of California's role in combating air pollution and climate change: "California’s authority to regulate pollutants from vehicles under the Clean Air Act is vital for both air pollution and climate change. This decision preserves the state’s authority to lead in both of those areas."

Carlson also noted the uniqueness of the ruling regarding standing to sue, stating, "What’s unusual about this ruling is that the court said that the fuel companies and red states that brought the suit didn’t have standing to sue except on one farfetched constitutional claim, which the court also rejected." She highlighted California's pivotal role in advancing clean-vehicle standards, even surpassing federal regulations: “This is the most important environmental power California has to cut the air pollutants that cause smog and the greenhouse gases that cause climate change."

Looking ahead, Carlson mentioned the possibility of the case being taken to the Supreme Court by the petitioners: “The fuel company and state petitioners can seek review in the Supreme Court. It’s hard to predict whether the Supreme Court would hear the case but easy to predict that the petitioners will try."

Regarding potential policy changes, Carlson pointed out the impact of recent legislative acts on the automotive sector: “There’s virtually no question that another Trump administration would reverse and deny the EPA waiver, along with rolling back EPA and fuel economy standards, as it did after the Obama administration. However, the policies Congress adopted in the Inflation Reduction Act to incentivize the manufacture and purchase of zero-emissions vehicles, and policies in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal to spur the development of electric vehicle charging infrastructure, will make it much more difficult to slow down, let alone stop, the transformation in the automobile sector to electric vehicles."

Shifting focus to environmental contaminants, on Wednesday, the EPA introduced national limits on PFAS in drinking water. Nicholas Shapiro, a UCLA medical anthropologist and PFAS expert, highlighted the significance of the monitoring component in the EPA rule: “The monitoring mandate will help to smooth out the extremely patchy PFAS data landscape that makes national analyses of these toxic chemicals difficult to impossible."

Media outlets are encouraged to reach out to Carlson and Shapiro for further insights on these environmental developments and other related topics.

Alison Hewitt

Senior Media Relations Officer

UCLA Strategic Communications | Office of Media Relations

ahewitt@stratcomm.ucla.edu | @ashewitt | @ahewitt.bsky

310-206-5461