
President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation has already started the process of rescinding a greenhouse gas measurement rule that Trump also rescinded during his first term.
On his second day in office, DOT Secretary Sean Duffy signed off on a notice of proposed rulemaking to rescind a greenhouse gas measurement rule finalized under former President Joe Biden’s administration. The rule provides a national framework for state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations to track transportation-related greenhouse gas emission.
The greenhouse gas measurement rule requires MPOs and state DOTs to establish declining carbon dioxide targets. They are to report on progress toward the achievement of those targets. The final rule only establishes a framework for measurement. It does not mandate how low greenhouse gas emission targets must be.
Specifically, state DOTs and metropolitan planning organizations that have National Highway System mileage within their geographic boundaries must establish declining targets for reducing CO2 emission generated by on-road mobile sources relative to a reference year defined as calendar year 2022, and must report on their progress.
This is Trump’s second time rescinding the greenhouse gas measurement rule.
In 2017, the Federal Highway Administration under former President Barack Obama issued a similar rule just days before Trump took office. Trump’s FHWA rescinded the rule, finding the previous administration exceeded its authority. However, the Biden administration resurrected the rule in 2022, setting the stage for déjà vu after Trump was reelected.
The trucking industry has opposed the greenhouse gas measurement rule. In February 2024, a group of 40 stakeholders representing a variety of industries, including the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, issued a letter to Congress members and authorizing committees to express opposition to the rule. Soon after, Republicans introduced a Congressional Review Act joint resolution of disapproval to overturn it.
“OOIDA and the hundreds of thousands of small business truckers across America we represent support the return of common sense to regulations,” OOIDA President Todd Spencer said. “FHWA can best improve highway safety by focusing on priorities like expanding truck parking capacity and mitigating congestion rather than forcing states to calculate radical emissions performance measures.”
Legal challenge pending
While the Trump administration is trying to roll back the greenhouse gas measurement rule through the regulatory process, Republican states are in the middle of a court battle to strike it down.
Shortly after the rule was published, the state of Texas filed a lawsuit challenging it. Two days later, 21 Republican-led states filed a similar lawsuit. The states argued what FHWA concluded in 2018, which is the agency had no authority to establish the rule in the first place.
“President Biden is unconstitutionally ramming his radical climate agenda through administrative agencies that lack Congressional authority to implement such actions,” then-Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement. “We will not stand by while this administration attempts to circumvent the legislative process.”
Last March, the judge in the Texas case agreed with the state, dismissing the case and vacating the greenhouse gas measurement rule because FHWA overstepped its authority by establishing it.
The court order came just two days before reporting under the new rule was scheduled to begin. A few days later, the judge in the Kentucky case issued a similar ruling. The federal government appealed both cases.
Oral arguments for both cases were scheduled for February. However, the federal government asked the courts to pause the cases as it begins the process to do the very thing plaintiffs want in the case: to get rid of the greenhouse gas measurement rules. The judge in the Texas case agreed to a pause.
Even though an administration change has both parties in agreement, the states in the Kentucky case want the legal challenge to proceed. With oral arguments less than a week away, the states argue too much time and resources have been spent on the 14 months of litigation to abruptly stop it. They point out that even though FHWA wants to rescind the rule, it will remain “on the books” in the meantime.
“The States appreciate that the FHWA’s position cannot be changed on a dime,” the states note in court documents. “New leadership is entitled to take the time necessary to review the agency’s pending business and make decisions about its priorities going forward. In many cases, such as where oral argument is not quickly approaching, the States would have readily consented to a stay. But at this late point in the litigation, the States maintain that it is best to let the case proceed to argument.”
As of Friday, Jan. 31, oral arguments in the Kentucky case were still set for Wednesday, Feb. 5. LL
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