A federal appeals court has blocked a Biden administration rule for calculating electric vehicle efficiency at the urging of Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, heading a coalition that included other Republican-led states. The petition to the Eighth Circuit appeals court involved a 2023 Department of Energy rule tweaking the government's longtime formulas for calculating vehicle fuel efficiency, which set standards automakers are required to meet. In general, the rule was meant to end the use of a calculation factor that the energy department believed favored electric vehicles. Bird, joined by a dozen other states, argued in court that the changes, in fact, would favor electric vehicles even more, claiming the new standard exaggerated the equivalent fuel efficiency of electric vehicles in excess of sixfold. In an April 2024 statement announcing the lawsuit, Bird accused Biden of giving a handout to electric vehicles that "hurts car-owners, roads, and carbon emissions across the count...