Xavier Becerra, attorney general of California. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Tuesday announced a challenge against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's changes to fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt last month announced that the EPA was rolling back an Obama-era plan to nearly double federal fuel efficiency standards by 2025 to about 50 miles per gallon. At the time, the EPA said California's waiver to implement its own standards was being reexamined.

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia filed the petition Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit claiming the EPA acted arbitrarily and capriciously, failed to follow its own regulations, and violated the Clean Air Act.

Read the petition below: