Red states sue over emissions rule

Nearly half of U.S. states have sued to block a Biden administration rule requiring them to reduce transportation-related greenhouse gases, arguing the administration lacks authority to impose the rule and that it would force them to “contort transportation investment decisions” to reduce emissions.

Attorneys general from 21 states filed the lawsuit Dec. 21. Separately, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Dec. 22 sued the Department of Transportation to stop the rule.

Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky, the states’ complaint names President Biden, federal Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt and the DOT and FHWA agencies. It comes weeks after the Biden administration unveiled the final rule that requires state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations to measure greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles and implement targets to reduce the emissions. It’s part of Biden’s effort to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030. Transportation is the largest greenhouse gas contributor in the U.S., accounting for just under 30% of the country’s emissions in 2021, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

The rule would “result in a major change in the states’ selection of transportation projects,” the lawsuit said, by effectively requiring states to select projects that will help them achieve the declining emissions targets.

“In reality, the final rule means the states will have to select projects based on the policy objectives of the President.” For example, the mega I-69 Ohio River Crossing Project between Kentucky and Indiana “will certainly result in additional vehicular traffic and thus, CO2 emissions,” the complaint said.

The plaintiffs argue that the FHWA lacks the statutory authority to impose the rule. “In effect,” the complaint says, “the agencies are attempting to compel the states to be foot soldiers in service to President Biden’s climate change agenda, notwithstanding their own sovereign interests and policies, and Congress’s express enactment.”

The climate rule would also disproportionately affect rural states, the attorneys general argue, because rural residents drive more miles and have fewer options to reduce emissions.

“Many of the ideas for how states can decrease GHG emissions — congestion pricing, road pricing, ramp metering, increased coordination with transit and non motorized improvements, paying fees to scrap low mileage heavy duty vehicles — are options more conducive to metropolitan areas, not rural ones,” the lawsuit said.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter said in a press release that the policy is “unconstitutional and unlawful.”

“The inflated price of the ‘social cost of greenhouse gases’ will eventually lead to higher prices for everything from gasoline to groceries,” Hunter said.

Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a press release, “Florida will not sit idly by while the Biden Administration tries to force the Green New Deal into existence through the U.S. Department of Transportation.”

The suit was filed by Kentucky, South Dakota, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

A FHWA spokesperson said the agency does not comment on pending litigation.