California and nearly two dozen other states sue Trump administration for the right to set fuel-efficiency standards

California and 22 other states sued the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday, asking a federal court to block the Trump administration from stripping the nation’s most populous state of its long-standing authority to set its own fuel-efficiency standards on cars and trucks.

“We’ve said it before, and we will say it again: California will not back down when it comes to protecting our people and our environment from preventable pollution,” the state’s attorney general, Xavier Becerra, said in a statement announcing the action. “No matter how many times the Trump administration attempts to sabotage our environmental progress, we will fight for clean air.”

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, marks the latest round in an escalating fight between the White House and California officials over how quickly the nation’s auto fleet must increase its fuel-efficiency. Already, the feud has led to several legal skirmishes, a divided automotive industry and uncertainty in the nation’s car market.

In mid-September, the Trump administration acted to revoke California’s decades-old ability to set air pollution standards for cars, pickup trucks and SUVs that go beyond those required by the federal government. California’s authority to set such standards dates back to the Clean Air Act of 1970.

The administration’s move was a high-profile example in a broad campaign to undermine Obama-era policies aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions that fuel climate change.

“The Trump administration is on very weak footing in its attempt to revoke the waiver,” said Richard L. Revesz, an environmental and regulatory law expert at New York University’s law school. He added that the “action is unprecedented” and that the Clean Air Act “does not contemplate the possibility that the federal government would revoke a waiver that had already been granted.”