No More Freeways v. U.S. Department of Transportation

A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the District of Oregon asserted that the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration and its administrator violated NEPA, Section 4(f) of the Department of Transportation Act, and the Administrative Procedure Act in connection with their approval a highway project in Portland. Among other things, the plaintiffs contended that the project should have been found significant under NEPA because it would result in increased congestion and increased greenhouse gases and because its impacts on the environment were “highly uncertain” because conclusions regarding a number of impact areas, including “climate emissions,” were contingent on transportation modeling that had not been disclosed. The plaintiffs alleged that the defendants’ environmental assessment understated traffic levels as well as carbon emissions.