HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen recently filed four lawsuits against the Biden administration’s unlawful Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules. Attorney General Knudsen has filed 49 lawsuits against the Biden administration.

“President Biden has been waging war on affordable energy since the day he took office. I will continue to fight back against Joe Biden’s unlawful and overreaching energy policies,” Attorney General Knudsen said. 

Nebraska, et.al. v. EPA, et. al.
Attorney General Knudsen joined a coalition of 24 attorneys general Monday in filing a challenge to the Biden administration’s new regulation on heavy-duty vehicle emissions that would require vehicle manufacturers to produce fewer trucks that utilize the preferred, traditional internal-combustion technology in favor of electric trucks.

The EPA rule imposes stringent tailpipe emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles that forces manufacturers to produce more electric trucks and fewer internal-combustion trucks. Right now, electric trucks—and the infrastructure needed to support them—are virtually nonexistent. They also have shorter ranges and require longer stops.

The Biden administration’s EPA exceeded their constitutional and statutory authority in attempting to force the entire country to transition to electric trucks. In addition to their legal flaws, both regulations defy reality. Electric trucks are inefficient and costly and will harm citizens of Montana by increasing the costs of interstate transportation, raising prices for goods, and burdening the electric power grid.

Read the petition for review here. 

West Virginia, et.al. v. EPA, et. al.
Attorney General Knudsen joined a coalition of 25 attorneys general Thursday in asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to declare President Biden’s new Clean Air Act rule unlawful. The rule will shut down power plants in Montana and across the country.

The rule forces more stringent emissions standards on existing coal-, natural gas-, and oil-fired power plants and could force many to shut down if they don’t capture smokestack emissions. In its rule, the EPA ignored a rebuke from the U.S. Supreme Court in West Virginia v. EPA in 2022, which warned that EPA should not use a narrow regulatory provision to force coal-fired power plants into retirement en masse.

The Biden administration cannot sidestep Congress and implement rules and regulations that will radically transform the nation’s energy grids and ultimately force states to fundamentally shift their energy portfolios away from fossil fuel-fired generation.

Read the petition for review here.

North Dakota, et.al. v. EPA
Attorney General Knudsen joined a coalition of 23 attorneys general Thursday in filing a petition for review in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, challenging the Biden administration’s unconstitutional and overreaching rule aimed at killing coal-fired energy production in Montana and across the country. The EPA rule would require certain air toxin emission levels from coal-fired plants to be reduced drastically, there are no corresponding health benefits to the new requirements and will put a greater financial burden on Montana and its industries.

Read the petition for review here.

Oklahoma, et. al v. EPA, et. al
Attorney General Knudsen joined a coalition of 14 attorneys general Thursday in challenging the EPA’s final rule amending its Risk Management Program (RMP) under the Clean Air Act. The rule places onerous accident prevention program requirements on certain facilities that hold more than a threshold quantity of certain regulated substances. The industries that will be adversely impacted include agricultural chemical distributors and wholesalers, chemical manufacturers and wholesalers, food and beverage manufacturers, oil and gas extraction operations, petroleum and coal products manufacturers, petroleum wholesalers, water and wastewater utilities, and more.

The final rule increases regulatory burdens without providing a sufficient return in benefits. The EPA estimates the rule will cost more than $250 million annually for businesses to comply, yet the agency has failed to demonstrate how its requirements will reduce the number of chemical accidents or improve safety. Additionally, the rule’s new information disclosure requirements raise significant national security threats by easing the flow of sensitive information to criminals and terrorists. 

Read the petition for review here.