Professor Frank Files Brief with D.C. Circuit in Kentucky v. EPA

In December, Professor of Environmental Practice Rick Frank filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on behalf of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies.

The pending case is Kentucky v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in which a number of “red” states sued to challenge USEPA’s regulations promoting the transition of light- and medium motor vehicles from fossil fuels to electric power. That regulatory change is intended to reduce conventional air pollution from U.S. motor vehicles, as well as vehicular greenhouse gas emissions that contribute substantially to climate change.

The brief Frank submitted on behalf of the Institute for Transportation Studies disputes, on multiple grounds, the states’ claims that the U.S. electrical grid will be inadequate to provide sufficient electricity to power the number of U.S. EV vehicles contemplated under the USEPA rules.  (This month, Frank will prepare and file a similar amicus brief with the D.C. circuit on behalf of ITS in a closely related case—Nebraska v. USEPA--brought by another coalition of states seeking to overturn new USEPA regulations limiting conventional air pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions from new U.S. heavy-duty trucks.)

Richard M. Frank ’74 is a leader in the field of environmental law, and the founding director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.