Today, the Ninth Circuit struck down the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s fuel mileage requirements for "light trucks", a category that includes lots of sports utility vehicles. The court held NHTSA’s rule "arbitrary, capricious and contrary to" the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 in a bunch of ways. The agency’s CAFE ("corporate average fuel economy") rule set the minimum too low, not least because it didn’t close the "SUV loophole". The court ordered the agency to try again — quickly — and to draft a full-bore enrivonmental impact statement. Center for Biological Diversity v. Nat’l Highway Traffic Safety Admin., No. 06-71891
Blawgletter expects that NHTSA will get right on it.
Barry Barnett
