December 2nd, 2022 by WCBC Radio

 West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is leading a coalition of eight states in filing an amicus brief in support of a multistate challenge to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's corporate average fuel economy standards.

Earlier this year, Texas, along with 10 states, petitioned the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review NHTSA’s standards which seeks to impose substantial increases in the number of electric vehicles on roads nationwide, with ramifications that will be felt throughout the automobile industry and our flailing economy generally.

“This administration’s mission seems to be to cripple the economy, increase inflation and prolong the suffering of millions of Americans struggling to make ends meet,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “The NHTSA final rule will undoubtedly cause the United States to be dependent on other nations like China for our energy needs and will undermine American energy security by increasing demand and strain power grids.”

NHTSA’s corporate average fuel economy standards, which were announced on April 1, require "an industry-wide fleet average of approximately 49 mpg for passenger cars and light trucks in model year 2026," and an increase of fuel efficiency by 8% per year for passenger cars and light trucks with a model year of 2024 and 2025.

“Americans depend on affordable vehicles to ferry them to work and play, church and school, friends and family,” according to the brief. “Trucks, meanwhile, help Americans do the hard work of hauling and towing. Pickup trucks and cars, in short, are critical. The States thus have an interest in ensuring that federal regulations do not make vehicles so prohibitively expensive to buy and drive that state residents can no longer freely enjoy the open road.”

Attorney General Morrisey was joined in the amicus brief by his counterparts in Alabama, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Virginia and Wyoming.