The National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) and the Texas Corn Producers Association (TCPA), along with other groups, filed a lawsuit today in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals challenging the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard for model year 2027-2032 passenger cars and light-duty trucks.
The CAFE rule mandates stringent new standards that appear designed to phase out liquid fuel-powered vehicles. Today’s filing follows two recent lawsuits led by NCGA, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the American Petroleum Institute and auto dealerships challenging the EPA’s light-duty and heavy-duty vehicle rulemakings.
“Once again, we have a federal agency trying to force a one-size-fits-all solution on the American consumer through the final NHTSA CAFE rule and fuel efficiency standard, which favors electric vehicles,” said Minnesota farmer and National Corn Growers Association President Harold Wolle. “Because ethanol effectively lowers greenhouse gas emissions and combats climate change, it accounts for one-third of corn growers’ demand. We are concerned that NHTSA could be putting the country on the path to eliminating this demand, which would be a major financial blow to corn growers.”
The Texas Corn Producers Association also weighed in on the development.
“On behalf of Texas corn farmers – and family farms across the nation, TCPA is joining this petition on the NHTSA CAFE final rule that threatens existing fuel infrastructure, including ethanol,” said TCPA President Jim Sugarek. “Not only does this rule endanger the ethanol demand that is important to our corn farmers’ markets, it poses a risk to the liquid fuel industry as a whole. We simply can’t allow a federal agency to dictate rules that jeopardize the viability of both the agriculture and energy sectors that drive the Texas economy.”
The American Petroleum Institute, American Farm Bureau Federation, Texas Farm Bureau and a group of six auto dealers representing sixteen brands and collectively operating dozens of dealerships in major markets across the country joined NCGA as co-petitioners in today’s lawsuit.
NHTSA’s final CAFE rule for passenger cars and light trucks requires passenger cars to reach 66.4 miles per gallon by 2032 and light trucks to 46.2 MPG, an overall fleet fuel economy average of 51.4 MPG. Comparatively, current CAFE standards for model years 2021-2026 require an overall average of 40 MPG by 2026.
