On the morning of January 20, the Environmental Advocacy Clinic at Vermont Law and Graduate School filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (D.C. Circuit) in Nebraska v. EPA to support EPA’s latest limits on climate pollution for heavy-duty vehicles like large trucks. This filing followed the clinic’s amicus brief in December in support of EPA’s standards for light- and medium-duty vehicles. Along the way, clinic student-attorneys made major contributions to the preparation and filing of the briefs.
The brief was filed on behalf of six distinguished climate scientists: Professors Michael Oppenheimer of Princeton University; Noah S. Diffenbaugh of Stanford University; Christopher B. Field of Stanford; Stephen W. Pacala of Princeton; Daniel P. Schrag of Harvard University; and Susan Solomon of Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Based on their expertise and the global scientific community’s consensus on climate change, the brief lays out the known and projected impacts of climate change on the United States.
Finalized in 2024, EPA’s “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3” seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles beginning in model year 2027. Under this rule, manufacturers have options to choose among cleaner and more efficient technologies that meet the tighter requirements. The challenges to these limits were filed by Nebraska and other states, as well as certain industry groups.
Stronger limits on vehicle emissions are absolutely essential to reducing the pollution that is causing climate damage across the globe, including in Vermont. The transportation sector is a leading greenhouse gas polluter, both in the United States and around the world. These heavy-duty vehicle limits would prevent an estimated 1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere over the next 30 years.
With the change of administration, the challengers are seeking a pause on their cases to allow the new officials to EPA to review these rules and, they hope, weaken them. But as the six leading scientists filing this brief affirm, rising greenhouse gases are right now contributing to our rapidly warming climate and the myriad devastating consequences of climate change, especially its serious impacts on our lives. And no shift in administration or policy priorities at the federal level can change that strong climate policies like these emission standards are vital to our future.
Environmental Advocacy Clinic (EAC) student-attorneys Lauren Carita, Matt Dederer, Elizabeth Hein, Kaya Mark, Yanissa Rodriguez, and Auburn Schnitzer contributed to the amicus brief, which was drafted by EAC Director Christophe Courchesne together with the client climate scientists.