APRIL 4, 2024:
North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley says a 21-state coalition– which includes South Dakota– persuaded a federal judge to block the most recent example of federal overreach by the Biden Administration. The new federal rule would have required states to meet burdensome and expensive bureaucratic mandates for on-road vehicles. The 21-state coalition filed the successful court action in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.
The states said if the Federal Highway Administration’s rule had not been struck down, it would have required states to set arbitrary targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from on-road sources. But as the states successfully argued, and the Court held, the FHA acted improperly because Congress has not provided the FHA the statutory authority to implement these kinds of policies, and because FHA’s attempt to regulate in this instance was arbitrary and capricious.
“This case is another example of the Biden Administration ignoring the clear limitations on its authority in an attempt to implement an activist agenda that our Congress has declined to enact,” stated Attorney General Wrigley. “Federal agencies can’t act in this matter without statutory authority. That is a simple fact, but the current Administration keeps attempting to lawlessly enact it’s damaging agenda. This rule would have hit rural states particularly hard. Thankfully the Court saw this case for what it is, another attempt by the Biden team to promote an extremist climate agenda that harms North Dakotan and the nation.”
In addition to North Dakota and South Dakota, the 21-state coalition included Kentucky, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
DECEMBER 24, 2023:
South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley has joined 20 other Attorneys General in challenging a proposed rule by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway Administration that mandates all states with National Highway Safety System mileage establish targets to reduce on-road CO2 emissions.
“This proposed rule would require states to establish targets for reducing on-road carbon dioxide emissions,” said Attorney General Jackley. “It would put undue burdens on states regarding what type of equipment they could use.”
In their lawsuit, the Attorneys General argue Congress has not given the federal Department of Transportation or the Federal Highway Administration authority to regulate greenhouse emissions. They said such mandates would impact the economies of the states.
“Rural states like South Dakota would be among the most impacted because South Dakotans on average must drive more than those in urban states,” said Attorney General Jackley.
North Dakota Attorney General Drew H. Wrigley announced that North Dakota will be part of a 21-state coalition challenging a new Biden Administration rule from the Department of Transportation mandating that all States with National Highway System mileage establish targets to reduce on-road CO2 emissions. The lawsuit argues that Congress has not given the U.S. Department of Transportation the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and that the rule will unlawfully cause significant harm to the economies of the States and the pocketbooks of their residents—with the harm falling disproportionality harder on rural states, where residents on average must drive significantly more than in urban states.
“This rule is yet another effort by the Biden administration to unconstitutionally and unlawfully use federal administrative agencies to push a climate agenda where Congress has granted no authority to implement such actions,” said Attorney General Wrigley. “We will continue to push back against regulatory overreach by the Department of Transportation, and every other agency in the Federal government engaged in this sort of unlawful conduct.”
In the complaint filed Friday (Dec. 22, 2023) in the United States District Court in Kentucky, Attorney General Wrigley and the coalition of States assert that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) overstepped its legal authority. The coalition writes, “Congress has not given FHWA or DOT authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (“GHG”). Nor can the Agencies compel the States to administer a federal regulatory program or mandate them to further Executive policy wishes absent some other authority to do so—which is lacking as to this rule.”
Further, the attorneys general note that the FHWA previously issued a similar rule, which was repealed after the agency determined that the measure may duplicate “existing efforts in some States” and imposed “unnecessary burdens on State DOTs and MPOs [metropolitan planning organizations] that were not contemplated by Congress.”
Attorneys General joining in the lawsuit also are from: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The letter can be found here:
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