SEMA Celebrates Supreme Court for Considering Legality of California’s Clean Air Act Exemption

Organization’s friend-of-the-court filing yields significant breakthrough in challenge to California’s statutory authority to ban the sale of ICE vehicles

DIAMOND BAR, CA – December 16, 2024 – (Motor Sports NewsWire) – The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) today expressed its appreciation of the Supreme Court of the United States for granting a writ of certiorari for a critical question in the case of Diamond Alternative Energy LLC v. EPA, which SEMA requested earlier this year via an amicus brief. In granting the writ, the court agreed to decide the important question whether some business interests and trade organizations, including members of the automotive aftermarket, have standing to make a legal claim that California’s Clean Air Act waiver allows the state to set rules that reduce demand for their products.

The court agreed to hear an appeal of a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit holding that the plaintiffs did not have a legal right to challenge the waiver.

Specifically, the case stems from a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel’s prior dismissal of a challenge to electric vehicle (EV) mandates on grounds that the plaintiffs lacked standing. To sue in federal courts, there needs to be a concrete injury because of a defendant’s actions. If the Supreme Court rules that the plaintiffs have standing, the D.C. Circuit would have to address the merits (i.e., whether the Environmental Protection Agency can let California regulate automotive carbon dioxide emissions). This is a fortuitous question, given President Joe Biden’s anticipated extension of California’s waiver through 2035.

The court declined to hear a challenge to the legality of the waiver itself.

SEMA’s amicus brief, filed in August, argued that California’s non-technology-neutral regulation that limits sales of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles will have a devastating impact on the automotive aftermarket industry, effectively killing, rather than fostering innovation that can help produce cleaner, safer automobiles.

“SEMA is pleased that the nation’s highest court acknowledges the significant public interest in the question raised in Diamond Alternative Energy LLC v. EPA: that California is wrong to pursue internal combustion engine bans, and that lower courts who have affirmed the state’s ability to do so in fact ruled in error,” said SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola. “SEMA looks forward to the Supreme Court’s full review of this matter and is confident that justice will prevail on behalf of American innovation and ingenuity.”

SEMA, as an organization, champions a technology-neutral approach that fosters innovation and ingenuity and will continue its efforts to preserve Americans’ rights to vehicle choice and the automotive aftermarket industry’s ability to design, manufacture, and bring to market products that help solve the carbon emissions challenge.

About SEMA

The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) serves as a leading voice for the worldwide car culture, representing over 7,000 member companies that create, buy, sell, and use specialty-automotive parts that make vehicles more unique, attractive, convenient, safer, fun, and even like new again. Business member benefits include product development resources, market research, networking, education, legislative advocacy, and more. The Association organizes the annual SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nev., and actively supports the career and business opportunities that the aftermarket generates. The industry contributes nearly $337 billion in economic impact to the U.S. economy, supports 1.3 million jobs nationally, and generates $52.3 billion in parts sales annually. For more information, visit www.sema.org.

Source: Specialty Equipment Market Association

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