Texas v. U.S. Department of Transportation

The Fifth Circuit granted federal defendants’ unopposed motion for dismissal of their appeal of a district court judgment vacating a Federal Highway Administration rule that required states to set declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions from on-road mobile sources. The federal defendants-appellants said the Department of Transportation would continue to consider further administrative steps as to the challenged rule.

The federal district court for the Northern District of Texas agreed with the State of Texas and its Department of Transportation that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) lacked statutory authority for its final rule requiring states to establish declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions from on-road mobile sources. FHWA adopted the rule as part of its National Highway Performance Program (NHPP) performance measures. The court concluded that Congress expressly limited permissible NHPP performance measures to measures focused on facilitating travel, commerce, and national defense and not measures focused on the environmental performance of vehicles using highway infrastructure. The court found that statutory context further demonstrated that the “performance” of the highway system did not include greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles using the system. The court concluded that vacatur of the regulation was the proper remedy.

In cases brought by state plaintiffs in federal district courts in Kentucky and Texas to challenge a National Highway System regulation requiring states to establish declining targets for carbon dioxide emissions from on-road mobile sources, the plaintiffs agreed to withdraw their motions from preliminary injunction after the federal defendants agreed to extend the regulation’s February 1 deadline for states to submit initial targets and reports until March 29, 2024. The parties agreed to accelerated briefing schedules for cross-motions for summary judgment.

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