Texas is attempting to join a lawsuit to block California from forcing its radical alternative energy policies onto the rest of the U.S.
Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a request on Friday—alongside America First Legal—to join the Trump administration in a lawsuit to stop California from pushing its vehicle emissions standards onto Texas car owners.
California received several waivers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2022 to implement its “Advanced Clean Cars II” program. This new set of auto emissions regulations requires all vehicles in the state to be electric by 2035.
This past May, Trump approved three Congressional Review Act joint resolutions that revoked the waivers given to California to enforce the new emissions standards.
California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration in June for ending the state’s emissions program, arguing that Trump approved illegal resolutions targeting it.
“I am standing with President Trump in his effort to stop Gavin Newsom and California from shoving its insane so-called ‘green energy’ vehicle standards down the Nation’s throat,” said Paxton. “Texas will not look the other way while the failed state of California undermines our sovereignty, attacks America’s energy independence, and intentionally adopts destructive policies that would harm the other States.”
Paxton argues that Texas has a significant interest in the case, because if the waivers were reinstated and the emissions-free program were to continue, California would be dictating the entire nation’s vehicle emissions standards.
“In practice, the California Waivers effectively nationalize its emission standards, regardless of whether any of its sister States opt in, as automobile manufacturers have shown they are not willing to produce two sets of vehicles for sale within the United States, opting instead to meet the more stringent California standards,” reads the filing.
This is because automakers want “nationwide regulatory certainty.”
Paxton warns that if California succeeds in implementing its green emissions program, it would threaten not only the sovereignty of Texas and other states, but also Texas’ oil and gas industry.
“Denying intervention would risk leaving Texas’s vital interests unprotected and would undermine the principles of federalism and equal sovereignty that are foundational to our constitutional system,” the filing continues.
On August 15, the U.S. Justice Department announced a lawsuit against California to end the enforcement of emissions standards for heavy trucks under the state’s Clean Truck Partnership.
