MADISON – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) filed a lawsuit on Friday morning against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The lawsuit seeks to stop the DNR’s illegal practice of regulating emissions from certain mobile sources of air pollution while those sources are manufactured.
Air emissions come from two types of sources, stationary sources and mobile sources. The Clean Air Act allows state governments to regulate stationary sources, reserving for the federal government the power to regulate mobile sources. But Wisconsin’s DNR, for roughly forty years, has controlled nonroad emissions from engines that are manufactured or assembled as part of another piece of equipment. These include engines found in lawn tractors, snowmobiles, generators, UTVs, and other similar machinery.
In the lawsuit, WMC, represented by the WMC Litigation Center, argues that the DNR’s regulation of these mobile sources is in violation of federal law.
“It’s a new form of an old trick: using power not just to break the law but to obscure the violation with an air of authority,” said Nathan Kane, WMC Litigation Center Deputy Director. “It’s not right that manufacturers have to pay huge sums of money to comply with regulations that are contrary to federal law.”
“The DNR’s illegal regulation puts Wisconsin manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage,” added Scott Manley, WMC’s Executive Vice President of Government Relations. “Manufacturers in many other states don’t need to waste any time or money complying with regulations like these. Wisconsin’s DNR is out of line.”
WMC represents the interests of roughly 3,800 employers from every sector of the state’s economy. The WMC Litigation Center, an affiliate of WMC, represents clients in legal actions to foster and protect the free enterprise system, especially from unlawful government overreach.
Click here to read the complaint.
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