Environmental Law Clinic Files Amicus Briefs in D.C. Circuit and U.S. Supreme Court to Defend Federal Actions on Climate and Air Pollution – Mills Legal Clinic of Stanford Law School

This winter, ELC students filed three separate amicus briefs in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

On behalf of the International Council of Clean Transportation, ELC student Matt Benjamin (‘25) filed amicus briefs in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in support of the Environmental Protection Agency’s multipollutant emission rules for light- and medium-duty vehicles (Kentucky v. EPA) and for heavy-duty vehicles (Nebraska v. EPA).  The briefs explain the variety of technologies manufacturers can deploy to comply with these rules and summarize research demonstrating their feasibility, including the potential benefits of vehicle electrification for electric grid operations, affordability, and resilience.  ELC filed the briefs in collaboration with the U.C. Davis Environmental Law & Policy Center, which represented amicus curiae the University of California, Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.

“State and private petitioners attempted to construe the heavy- and light-duty vehicle rules as broad mandates for auto manufacturers to make electric vehicles,” Matt said about the case. “They are not such mandates. As our clients’ research shows, the rules set reasonable standards for auto manufacturers to cut their carbon emissions. The rules are in line with current economic and scientific research on the EV rollout.”

ELC also filed an amicus brief in Oklahoma v. EPA, a challenge to EPA’s interpretation of the Clean Air Act’s venue provisions in its disapproval of State Implementation Plans.  ELC’s amicus brief – drafted by ELC student Ralph Skinner (‘26) and filed in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of three former General Counsels at EPA – lays out how the venue provision’s legislative history and EPA’s judicious and longstanding interpretation of the provision suggest that the appropriate venue for such a challenge is the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, as opposed to regional circuits.