CHARLESTON — West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey praised a federal judge who declared unlawful a Biden administration highway emissions rule the AG says was meant to drive gas-powered cars off the road.
The 21-state coalition brought a challenge last year in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky against the Federal Highway Administration’s rule that attempted to force states to reduce carbon dioxide emissions on the roads. U.S. District Judge Benjamin Beaton said the rule exceeded the authority Congress granted the FHA and encroach on the authority of the states.
Invoking the state’s victory in West Virginia v. EPA, Beaton said the Federal Highway Administration had acted without statutory authority and in an arbitrary way.
Beaton issued the 26-page opinion and order April 1.
“A tailpipe-emissions reduction forced on states under the guise of highway planning is just another example of a regulatory elephant squeezed into a statutory mousehole,” Beaton wrote. “The court declares that the rule exceeds the Federal Highway Administration’s statutory authority and is arbitrary and capricious.”
If the FHA rule had not been struck down, Morrisey said it would have required states to set targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from on-road sources. Multiple states commented that the FHWA rule may cause the elimination of future economic development and job creation projects.
The Emissions Rule would have progressively lowered CO2 emissions with a long-term goal of “net-zero" emissions across the U.S. economy by 2050.
In a Feb. 9 motion for summary judgment, the coalition of attorneys general argued that the rule exceeds the administration’s authority and violates the Administrative Procedure Act, which governs the process by which federal agencies develop and issue regulations.
“The Biden administration continues to shove this woke environmental agenda into hardworking Americans’ throats; this administration has lost touch with the reality,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “This is an attack on rural America and rural Americans who are working really hard to make ends meet.
“Without this victory in court, hardworking West Virginians would have ended up paying the price of this politically-charged far-left policy.”
West Virginia joined the Kentucky-led coalition with Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming.
U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky case number 5:23-cv-0162