Previously we’ve reviewed overarching expectations of the second Trump Administration, how the Trump Administration will act on California’s emissions waivers, the steps the Trump Administration is likely to take with respect...more
On Monday, January 13, 2025, California withdrew requests for Clean Air Act waivers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) needed to support four recently adopted vehicle emissions regulations: 1) the Advanced...more
In a significant development for environmental law and state autonomy, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) recently declined to review whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has the authority to...more
In Ohio et al. v. U.S. EPA, on April 9, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") to allow California's 2013 greenhouse gas emissions...more
March and April have been busy months for vehicle emission regulation in the U.S. On March 20 and March 29 respectively, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) issued a set of final emission rules setting...more
On April 12, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for “Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles – Phase 3” (the Phase 3 proposed rule or NPRM), establishing...more
On April 12, 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the notice of proposed rulemaking for “Multi-Pollutant Emission Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles” (the “proposed...more
On December 20, 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency finalized regulations aimed at reducing harmful emissions from trucks, delivery vehicles, and buses. These regulations will impact vehicles manufactured after 2027 and...more
The Tel Aviv District Court recently allowed a motion to certify a class action against the Volkswagen Group and its importer in Israel, Champion Motors Ltd. The class action focuses on the Dieselgate scandal, after an...more
On August 5, 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) to revise the federal greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in model years (MY) 2022-2026. In coordination with the...more
On 31 March 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a new joint rule finalizing the Trump administration's fuel...more
Led by California, 23 states, including Massachusetts, have sued the Trump administration challenging new federal regulations that strip the states’ authority to set their own vehicle emissions standards. On December 3, 2019,...more
In 2015, when confronted with a United States Environmental Protection Agency Notice of Violation of the Clean Air Act, Volkswagen admitted to installing defeat devices in the diesel engine software of approximately 500,000...more
Action May Have Far-Reaching Impacts - Today, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (“NHTSA”) announced a joint rule intended to substantially affect...more
Yesterday President Trump announced on Twitter that the U.S. was revoking California’s waiver under the Clean Air Act (CAA) which allowed it to impose stricter tailpipe emission standards than the federal ones. California’s...more
As President Trump’s nominee to head the Environmental Protection Agency, Andrew Wheeler, cleared a key committee vote this week, a conflict between EPA and the State of California over tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions shows...more
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a joint notice of proposed rulemaking today, called the "Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles...more
A Michigan district court judge determined that the Clean Air Act did not preclude plaintiffs from bringing 53 state law fraudulent concealment and consumer protection claims against General Motors LLC and its suppliers for...more
A coalition of states has opened a new front in the ongoing battles between the Trump Administration’s efforts to streamline regulations applicable to industry and the interests favoring additional regulation. In response to...more
A Volkswagen manager pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violating the Clean Air Act and could get seven years in prison. A Volkswagen engineer who agreed to testify against the Volkswagen manager was sentenced to three years in...more
The headlines generated by the Volkswagen emissions scandal continue to amaze the environmental community and the general public, both here and abroad. The events are shocking in part because they involve a household name in...more
News of “Dieselgate” broke in the Fall 2014, when vaunted vehicle-maker Volkswagen was accused of dodging federal emissions laws by rigging its automobiles so they would pass smog tests. The summer of 2015 saw the scandal...more
I continue my series on why I believe that compliance is at the ‘Tipping Point’ with a discussion of the Volkswagen (VW) emissions-testing scandal and its effect on the greater compliance world. Myself and many other...more
Many Americans listened last week to the admissions by the now former President of Volkswagen that the company had been “dishonest” and had cheated on the U.S. emissions tests. How was this happening at the world’s #1...more
Things are seriously bad when one of the world’s most respected business focused publications, the Financial Times (FT), asks if the auto “industry faces ‘Libor moment’”? Yet that was a headline yesterday in the lead article...more