A federal judge on Monday blocked the Biden administration’s new emissions regulations that would require states to set greenhouse gas reduction goals in order to receive federal highway funding. Daily Caller News Foundation report.
What is your background?
The Biden administration’s Federal Highway Administration made the announcement the day before Thanksgiving. new regulations The state Department of Transportation is required to “develop carbon reduction goals,” Blaze News previously reported. The White House and supporters of the rule touted the measure’s “flexibility” because it “does not mandate how low the goal must go.”
The goals and progress toward them “will be used to inform the federal government’s future investment decisions,” according to the new rules.
Critics argued that the Biden administration was using the rule to force Americans to switch to electric vehicles and public transportation.
Republican North Dakota Sen. Kevin Cramer issued a statement in November accusing the “Biden bureaucracy” of “returning to an outdated strategy of inventing illegal and punitive regulatory schemes.”
“This final rule is contrary to Congress’ intent, usurps state authority by putting the federal government in the driver’s seat, and is fundamentally unworkable in a rural state like North Dakota,” Cramer said. he added.
Emissions regulations face legal challenge
A coalition of 21 states filed a lawsuit in December against the president, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration, arguing that the agencies lack the authority to regulate emissions or force states to comply with new measures. I woke you up. court news service report.
Plaintiff states in this lawsuit include Kentucky, South Dakota, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, and North Dakota. The state of Wyoming included Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) said the rule would impact “America’s economy” by requiring states to “make choices about projects, contracts, and regulations to achieve declining goals.” insisted.
“Mandatory reductions in road carbon emissions would have a disproportionate impact on states with large rural areas,” Cameron wrote in his complaint.
“States with fewer metropolitan areas have fewer options available to reduce CO2. Many of the ideas for how states can reduce GHG emissions include congestion pricing, road pricing, Ramp meters, better coordination between transit and non-motorized facilities, scrapping fees, etc. Large vehicles with low mileage are a more advantageous option for metropolitan areas rather than rural areas,” he continued. “Low population density limits the effectiveness of public transport and congestion pricing as options to reduce vehicle miles traveled and, as a result, CO2 emissions.”
Judge Benjamin Beaton of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, appointed by former President Trump, blocked the Biden administration’s takeover on Monday.
in him opinion“Even assuming that Congress gave the Administrator the authority to set environmental performance standards that take CO2 into account, the Administrator exercised that authority arbitrarily and capriciously,” Beaton asserted.
Beaton agreed that the rule lacked legal basis. However, he did not prohibit enforcement of the regulations or invalidate them.
“The Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration are committed to the Biden-Harris administration’s climate change goals of cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050,” a Federal Highway Administration spokesperson told DCNF. I am committed to continuing to support them.”
The spokesperson added, “We are reviewing the court’s ruling and determining our next steps.”
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