Clean Air Carolina v. U.S. Department of Transportation

On September 28, 2017, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) published notice that greenhouse gas performance measures for the national highway system that it suspended indefinitely in May 2017 would go into effect. FHWA also said it had initiated additional rulemaking procedures to repeal the greenhouse gas measures and expected to issue a proposed rule in 2017 with the goal of issuing a final rule in spring 2018. Two lawsuits had been filed challenging FHWA’s delay and suspension of the greenhouse gas performance measures’ effective date.

On September 25, 2017, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York submitted a letter to the federal district court for the Southern District of New York, which was hearing one of the cases, indicating that the federal defendants believed the impending September 28 notice would make the lawsuit moot and asking that deadlines for the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment be adjourned.

Three organizations filed a lawsuit alleging that the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) violated the Administrative Procedure Act when it suspended a greenhouse gas performance measure for tracking and setting reduction targets for carbon dioxide emitted from on-road mobile sources on the national highway system. The plaintiffs alleged that FHWA had suspended the measure without notice and comment and lacked good cause to do so. The measure was included in a final rule published on January 18, 2017, which was to take effect on February 17, 2017. The final rule was subject to the regulatory freeze instituted by the Trump administration on January 20. Subsequently, FHWA twice suspended the entire rule—which contained provisions other than the greenhouse gas measure—for set periods of time. On May 29, 2017, FHWA published notice that it was suspending the effective date for the greenhouse gas measure indefinitely. The greenhouse gas measure was promulgated under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21) and the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).