Equipment Not Part of CAA

In late April, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld federal Clean Air Act (CAA) provisions that state and local governments cannot set emission standards for new motor vehicles, a provision which also applies to construction equipment.

This solid victory for our industry will help ensure that local governments trying to achieve new air-quality levels are not doing it on the backs of builders.

The Supreme Court overturned a decision by the Ninth Circuit. In doing so, the Court agreed with NAHB's friend-of-the-court brief in which we and our coalition partners argued that the law does not allow state and local governments to adopt new motor vehicle emissions standards.

This ruling should help curtail the national trend of overreaching air-quality regulations on construction equipment and help keep prices low. Equally important, it will help prevent states and localities from imposing unnecessary regulations that drive up the cost of housing and push homeownership further out of the reach of working families.