Kentucky Attorney General Prevails as U.S. Judge Rules Against Highway Emissions Rule

Debarylife – The Biden administration went too far by mandating states to set targets for lowering heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions from vehicle tailpipes and other sources on federal roadways, according to a federal judge who sided with Kentucky’s Republican attorney general.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) was not legally authorized to adopt the “arbitrary and capricious” rule, according to an order made on Monday by U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton of Kentucky’s Western District.

Before Beaton could complete reviewing the case, a federal judge in Texas had already declared the law unconstitutional worldwide, according to Reuters, which stated the judge refrained from blocking the regulation’s implementation or overturning it.

In 2020, Donald Trump, who was president at the time, appointed Beaton.

According to an FHWA rule, starting in 2024, state transportation agencies would have to set two- and four-year goals for reducing emissions. States now have “flexibility” to create targets that “work for their respective climate change and other policy priorities and are appropriate for their communities,” according to the rule.

States would have “flexibility to set their own climate targets” and a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution,” according to a statement made by U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg at the time the regulation was finalized.

Transportation was responsible for 29% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021, which fueled the growing consequences of climate change caused by human activity, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Attorney General Russell Coleman of Kentucky filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration to halt the rule’s implementation, along with twenty other Republican attorneys general. Among those participating in the Kentucky-led lawsuit was Tim Griffin, the attorney general of Arkansas.

In a statement, Coleman said that “Kentucky families, farmers, and workers” are suffering as a result of Biden’s “radical environmental agenda.”

Kentucky adores their trucks, vehicles, and vans, just like all Americans do. We’re stopping the Biden Administration’s politics, which make no sense in the Commonwealth, with this legal victory, Coleman added.

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“Cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050” is the administration’s aim, according to an email from an FHWA representative, who also stated that the agency was analyzing the court’s ruling.

During a parliamentary committee meeting in February, lawmakers questioned a representative of the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet regarding the FHWA rule and the lawsuit.

The cabinet’s deputy secretary, Mike Hancock, informed lawmakers that the department had a “great relationship” with the FHWA and that it was “in the habit of meeting federal requirements” to ensure that the state would continue to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal transportation funds.