Fuel firms can challenge California's emission limits, supreme court rules

[moniss]

4. California does have another tool they can

use that the SC can say nothing about. That is the state tax on gasoline. If California wants to move that from being less than $1.00 per gallon to being $3.00 or even higher there is nothing the courts or the oil companies can legitimately do to stop them. This would encourage people to switch to zero emissions vehicles while also providing revenue to the state to put in charging infrastructure and even offer rebates on vehicle purchases to lower income groups.

There are of course illegitimate things the courts and oil companies can do to thwart California in taking this approach. They could issue injuctions and then drag out the process in the courts for years of ping-ponging a purposely bad decision on a technicality up and down through the appellate system and SC and never really getting to the merits. The oil companies for example could have various "accidents" leading to spills etc. that a GQP managed EPA could let them off the hook for the cost of cleanup but the damage to California would remain. Other petrochemicals used by industry and consumers could be labeled as "Not for Sale in California". A manufacturer of a product can't be forced to sell a product to retailers/wholesalers in this or that state. If they found one of their wholesalers/retailers in Colorado for example was selling into California they could choke off the supply to the offending company in Colorado.