WASHINGTON— The Center for Biological Diversity joined other environmental and public health groups Wednesday to intervene in a lawsuit and defend the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s latest clean car standards.

Attorneys general from 25 states sued the EPA last week, saying that the rule intended to reduce carbon emissions from cars and light trucks oversteps the agency’s authority. The Center and allied groups now join 22 states and four cities who have intervened to support the rule.

“Standards that speed the rollout of cleaner vehicles are vital to keeping us off the highway to climate hell,” said Scott Hochberg, a transportation attorney at the Center’s Climate Law Institute. “Coast to coast we’re feeling the climate crisis, and pollution from cars and trucks is the country’s biggest source of it. We’re defending this rule because we simply can’t block the best solution we’ve got in the biggest sector of planet-heating pollution.”

The transportation sector is the largest source of direct greenhouse gas emissions, and emissions from passenger cars, SUVs and pickups make up more than half of that amount. The EPA estimates that the rule will save 7.2 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide and reduce other air pollution. The rule is also expected to generate billions of dollars in economic and consumer benefits.

“The EPA has set vehicle emissions standards for decades, and these standards are the agency’s bread and butter,” said Hochberg. “This rule falls squarely within the EPA’s domain of protecting air quality and reducing vehicle pollution, areas it has regulated many times before.”

The intervention was filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals, D.C. Circuit. The same court has yet to rule on a similar case that challenged the EPA’s prior round of clean car standards. A decision is expected soon in that case.