Lawmakers, trucking group signs onto lawsuit brief against EPA

Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen, House Speaker Ben Toma and the Arizona Trucking Association signed onto an opening brief in a lawsuit against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency over concerns about a quickly mandated pivot to electric vehicles for "semi-trucks" and other "heavy duty vehicles," which they argue could lead to higher supply chain costs.

The rule is pushing for a quarter of those vehicles to be electric by 2032, while also hoping to get 70% of new consumer vehicles on the market to be electric by that time. There's also concern about a regulation that would require trucks in Arizona that work in California to be replaced if they currently run on diesel, according to a news release.

Opponents have expressed concerns that it could create a negative financial impact to trucking businesses of all sizes and create an expensive trickle down effect.

"Our federal government does not have the power to mandate electric vehicles, and their actions show just how out of touch the Biden-Harris Administration is by creating costly policies that will inflict more financial pain on our citizens who have already been burned by skyrocketing costs over the past three-and-a-half years," Petersen said in a statement.

"The EPA egregiously overstepped its authority with these arbitrary rules, and the negative impact of forcing industries that every American consumer depends on, to make unreasonable and unattainable changes, will be detrimental to our economy. The Arizona Legislature will continue to hold this Administration accountable and defend our citizens from this big government negligence," he continued.

The case, which includes multiple states and groups nationwide, argues that the EPA's regulations do not consider some of the downsides to an electric vehicle switch over time.

"First, EPA’s standards rest on the false premise that electric vehicles have 'zero emissions,' when in reality they simply push substantial emissions to other sectors," the lawsuit states. "Second, EPA’s feasibility determination is unreasonable and unreasonably explained. Third, EPA repeatedly ignores the benefits of biofuels as a reasonable alternative to forced electrification. The rule must therefore be reversed."

The EPA announced the standards in March, arguing that it would help ultimately battle emissions concerns in the United States long-term.

“EPA’s standards complement President Biden’s unprecedented investment in our workers and communities to reduce harmful emissions, while strengthening our manufacturing capacity for the transportation technologies of the future,” President Joe Biden's National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said in a statement at the time. “By tackling pollution from heavy-duty vehicles, we can unlock extraordinary public health, climate, and economic gains.”