16 State Coalition Sues FHWA
Yesterday we published an article about a coalition of sixteen different states suing California regarding the Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. This is not a case of deja vu; the exact same number of states happen to be running their own lawsuit against the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA).
Details
It goes without saying that in the transition from the 46th president to the 47th, Donald Trump changed course on a variety of things done by his predecessor Joe Biden. One of the many changes President Trump made is halting a FHWA grant for electrical charging station that was approved by Congress under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.
The coalition of states this time around, with no repeats from the CARB lawsuit, are:
- Arizona
- California
- Colorado
- Delaware
- District of Columbia (technically not a state, but you get the idea).
- Hawaii
- Illinois
- Maryland
- Minnesota
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- Oregon
- Rhode Island
- Washington
- Wisconsin
- Vermont
The coalition argues that the spending was approved by Congress and signed by the former president at the time he was in office, meaning that the current president cannot apply a retroactive veto to it and render it ineffectual.
“…the Executive Order [Unleashing American Energy] directs the Federal Highway Administration to usurp the legislative and spending powers reserved to Congress by withholding congressionally appropriated funding for electric vehicle charging infrastructure required by statute to be distributed to states,” the lawsuit states.
Conclusion
This lawsuit ultimately has a very good chance of ruling in favor of the state coalition, if only for the shocking precedent the alternative would provide: if the office of the president had the power to completely shift gears on day one of a new presidential term, nothing that takes longer than four years to complete would ever get done. For instance, we would have never made it to the moon by 1969.
While the lawsuit is going through the court systems, however, it is likely that the FHWA will not pay out the $1 billion in electric charging infrastructure, so the state coalition may have to wait a while longer before it can receive those funds.
Other Trucking Articles You May Like
- CARB Abandons Advanced Clean Fleet Rule Altogether
- Trump Executive Order Makes English the Rule of the Road
- Government to Investigate Truck Manufacturing Capabilities
- Trump Administration to Repeal “Woke” Emissions Regulations
- Massachusetts and Maryland Leave Clean Truck Coalition
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