The Illinois Corn Growers Association has sued U.S. EPA for its multipollutant rule and the U.S. Department of Transportation for its National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule.

“Filing suit in a federal court isn’t something corn farmers take lightly,” says Dave Loos, ICGA director of biofuels and research. “We felt it was very necessary for us to be part of this to protect the corn growers in Illinois and other Midwestern states.”

EPA filed its multipollutant rule in March, requiring that by 2032, 69% of vehicles produced in the U.S. be electric. ICGA filed hundreds of pages of comments to EPA urging the agency to reconsider an electric mandate, citing challenges to electric infrastructure, devastating agricultural impacts and significant automotive industry expenses.

“The impacts to Midwest farmers and rural America are huge,” Loos says. “If we move to a 69% requirement of all vehicles produced by 2032 being electric, we could lose up to a billion bushels of corn demand by 2033. By 2049, that number could grow to close to 3 billion bushels of corn demand.”

ICGA also urged EPA to consider parallel pathways, such as ethanol expansion. EPA rejected all recommendations.

“EPA incentivized the electric vehicle industry for its ability to reduce carbon but refused to acknowledge the positive impact of renewable fuels,” says Dave Rylander, ICGA president and Victoria, Ill., farmer. “Ethanol is currently decarbonizing our atmosphere. Why are we penalizing our current solution for a technology that is not obtainable at its proposed level today?”

ICGA joins 12 other state corn organizations, 25 state attorney generals, the American Petrochemical Institute, the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, auto dealerships, and Valero in petitions filed against the ruling.

“The autos need consistent direction since it takes the autos four or five years to develop a platform for a new vehicle, get it certified and commercially available,” Loos adds.

The University of Nebraska reports the devastation and demand from this final rule could have similar impacts as what U.S. agriculture saw in the 1980s.

“We’re seeing this right now where the cost of producing a bushel of corn is more than the returns that the same bushel makes for the family farm,” Loos says. “This could become even worse in the next one to two years. With a rule like this out there, it just adds on to what we might be facing in agriculture.”

Loos says he’s optimistic about ICGA’s legal standing in the ruling for a variety of reasons, including:

“It’s a matter of the federal agencies thinking that they have more power than what they do,” Loos says. “Beef, Pork and many other organizations are facing an overextension of authority by EPA. It’s obvious EPA was set on establishing their agenda of an all-electric vehicle mandate.”

Transportation’s mimic rule

U.S. DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration rule mimics the multipollutant rule, requiring 67% of all vehicles to be electric by 2032. The same group of petitioners has filed petitions challenging the NHTSA rule in federal court.

Hearings will be set for 2025, where ICGA’s petitions will challenge EPA and DOT. Loos says the D.C. Circuit Court often tends to defend government agencies, but he feels the petitions will likely end up in the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We feel the Supreme Court would rule favorably, but time is not on our side,” Loos says. “We’re moving this as quickly as possible, although that still doesn’t roll back the clock. The agency has issued final rules and is implementing them now.”

Automakers have to comply with rules now that will have impact the next five years as they work through new vehicle development, testing and compliance. Each day in litigation has lasting implications as more electric vehicles hit the market.

The biggest unknown today is the impact the November election will have on EV mandates and expansion.

“I'm hoping there’s some common sense that comes to play here, no matter what administration takes over,” Loos says. “There are other alternatives out there that could achieve similar environmental results without the economic devastation. I hope that whoever comes in realizes that.”