The Federal Highway Administration on Thursday ended its requirement that state transportation departments must measure greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on highways and report the progress toward meeting goals to reduce pollution on the road.
The original rule, which had been tied up in the courts until appeal motions were ultimately dismissed, set out to establish declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions and require states to measure and report the changes in tailpipe emissions.
The Trump administration’s move to kill the regulation will “alleviate a burden on State [departments of transportation] and [metropolitan planning organizations] that, had it been implemented, would have imposed costs with no predictable level of benefits and without clear legal authority,” according to the new rule published in the Federal Register.
The action was praised by American Road & Transportation Builders Association President Dave Bauer, who applauded DOT Secretary Sean Duffy and President Donald Trump “for ending an unnecessary, ideologically driven mandate that would have placed new burdens on mobility solutions. Repealing the GHG rule removes a regulatory burden that would have increased project costs and imposed Washington, D.C. priorities on state transportation decisions.”
