Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor and his counterparts in 20 other states are suing the Biden Administration over new highway emissions rules requiring state transportation departments to set and meet reduction targets for carbon dioxide — and to report their results to the federal government.
The Federal Highway Administration rule, effective Jan. 8, is part of President Joe Biden’s climate change regime.
Atmospheric CO2 is the primary carbon source and is a building block for life on the planet. An over abundance of it can act as a greenhouse by absorbing infrared radiation and holding warmth.
Congress has not given the federal government authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, the complaint says.
Although the new rule “certainly follows President Biden’s policy wishes … the Agencies simply do not have the authority to issue it. Congress has not given FHWA or U.S. DOT authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions (‘GHG’). Nor can the Agencies compel the State 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. Furthermore, the Final Rule is arbitrary and capricious,” the complaint reads.
States suing Biden are Kentucky, South Dakota, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western district of Kentucky, and asks the court to vacate the rule and bloc its enforcement.
