John R. Lawson Rock & Oil, Inc. v. State Air Resources Board

The California Court of Appeal affirmed a trial court’s judgment that the California Air Resources Board (CARB) violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and California’s Administrative Procedures Act (APA) when it promulgated revised truck and bus regulations that extended compliance deadlines for small fleet operators. The truck and bus regulations are intended to reduce emissions of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, and greenhouse gases from large diesel engines. The appellate court concluded that CARB violated CEQA by approving the project before it had completed its environmental analysis and by failing to consider the petitioners’ “fair argument” that emissions would increase compared to emissions under the existing regulations and that the increases could be significant. The court also affirmed the trial court’s determination that CARB’s conduct violated the APA. The appellate court did not agree, however, with the trial court’s conclusion that CARB used an inappropriate baseline; the appellate court stated that CARB “was within its discretion to adopt a baseline calculation that measured the current environment without further reducing figures based on regulations that should have taken effect during the course of the analysis.”