While American’s began their long holiday weekend, the Biden administration quietly unveiled a massive highway emissions regulation plan on Wednesday.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) announced a new rule requiring state and local transportation agencies to set greenhouse gas reduction goals for any project that receives funding from the federal government. Many critics of the rule say this is a simple way for the federal government to go around Congress and mandating climate change policies for state and local governments.
According to West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Captio,“Federal overreach to advance a misguided climate agenda has become a staple of the Biden administration. The final rule, which imposes the performance measure and the requirement to set greenhouse gas targets on state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations (MPO), is just one more example of these harmful regulations.”
This new rule was originally included in the infrastructure bill but removed in order to pass Congress with bipartisan support in 2021.
“Without the authority to impose this mandate, the FHWA is ignoring the letter of the law to finalize a rule that hampers the ability of state DOTs and MPOs to address the transportation needs of their constituents,” Capito said.
The rule would require states to reduce their overall gas emissions but doesn’t state by how much transportation authorities must cut emissions.
“The bipartisan infrastructure law would not have been bipartisan had it included requirements on states for mitigating the impacts of global climate change,” said American Road and Transportation Builders Association CEO Dave Bauer. “States should be prioritizing the delivery of transportation safety and mobility improvements with the funds from the landmark bill, while consensus solutions are pursued to the world’s climate issues.”
According to Dan Kish, senior research fellow for the Institute for Energy Research, “It’s not surprising the Biden administration had Mayor Pete drop this regulation just as many Americans were fighting traffic to be with family on Thanksgiving on roads he won’t fix because he’s squandering gas tax money on bike lanes and climate nonsense. They don’t let the law get in the way of them imposing new edicts on Americans.”