Leading Climate Scientists Submit Amicus Brief Supporting EPA’s Clean Car Standards

Environmental Advocacy Clinic Files Brief Describing Reality and Risks of Climate Change in D.C. Circuit to Help Defend Emissions Standards for Light- and Medium-Duty Vehicles

SOUTH ROYALTON, Vermont (December 9, 2024) — Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Environmental Advocacy Clinic, on behalf of six leading climate scientists, has filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (D.C. Circuit). The amicus brief urges the court to uphold the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) vehicle emissions standards, known as “Emissions Standards for Light- and Medium-Duty Vehicles” (Emissions Standards).

The Emissions Standards require vehicle manufacturers to phase-in technologies that reduce greenhouse gas emissions from new light- and medium-duty vehicles, including passenger vehicles and small cargo trucks. These standards rely on clean car technologies, such as hybrid, plug-in hybrid and full battery electric vehicles. The Emissions Standards will lower the emissions of harmful pollutants, which protects public health, and benefit consumers by decreasing fuel costs and the need for vehicle maintenance and repairs.

“The science tells us that we need achievable policies to reduce the pollution causing global warming, including for the transportation sector,” said Christophe Courchesne, director of the Environmental Advocacy Clinic and associate professor of law. “Our brief shows why reducing vehicle emissions through these lawful standards is essential to help protect the public from the devastating effects of climate change we are already seeing and the dangers to come.”

The amicus brief underscores the unequivocal link between greenhouse gas emissions and the intensifying climate crisis. The brief emphasizes the urgent imperative to reduce emissions through policies like the Emissions Standards, which address pollution from the transportation sector, the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. The brief highlights what science has confirmed are the current and future impacts of climate change in the United States, including costly damage to infrastructure, escalating dangers to public health, threats to biodiversity and other natural resources, and major disruptions to communities and our economy.

The brief was filed on behalf of Professors Michael Oppenheimer, the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs at Princeton University; Noah S. Diffenbaugh, the Kara J. Foundation Professor and Kimmelman Family Senior Fellow at Stanford University; Christopher B. Field, the Melvin and Joan Lane Professor for Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies at Stanford University and the Perry L. McCarty Director of the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment; Stephen W. Pacala, the Frederick D. Petrie Professor Emeritus in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University; Daniel P. Schrag, the Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology, Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering, and Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University; and Susan Solomon, the Lee and Geraldine Martin Professor of Environmental Studies at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The brief supports the EPA before the D.C. Circuit, which is considering consolidated petitions for review of the Emissions Standards, in Commonwealth of Kentucky, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, et al., Case No. 24-1087 (and consolidated cases).

VLGS Environmental Advocacy Clinic Director Christophe Courchesne and Environmental Advocacy Clinic student attorneys Matt Dederer and Elizabeth Hein contributed to preparation of the brief, which follows a 2022 brief filed by the scientists before the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA.

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About Vermont Law and Graduate School: Vermont Law and Graduate School, a private, independent institution, is home to a law school that offers ABA-accredited residential and online hybrid JD programs and a graduate school that offers master’s degrees and certificates in multiple disciplines, including programs offered by the Maverick Lloyd School for the Environment, the Center for Justice Reform and other graduate-level programs emphasizing the intersection of environmental justice, social justice and public policy. Both the law and graduate schools strongly feature experiential clinical and field work learning. For more information, visit vermontlaw.edu, Facebook and Instagram.