Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. EPA

The D.C. Circuit dismissed a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and a trade group representing car dealers on standing grounds, upholding an EPA waiver allowing California to set standards for greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light trucks. The petitioners argued that the California standards would make it harder for manufacturers to make light trucks and other high-emitting but popular vehicles, and that the standards would cause sales to drop by making cars more expensive. In a unanimous decision, the court rejected this argument as too speculative and said that, in any event, the claim was moot because California had agreed to synchronize its own rules with federal fuel economy standards for model year 2012 and beyond. Because the petitioners could not show how their members would be injured, they lacked standing to maintain the action.