Benjamin Beaton, a Kentucky judge, ruled that a Biden administration measure requiring states to enforce emissions reductions on their roads is illegal. Beaton's decision coincides with one made last week by Texas Judge James Wesley Hendrix which annulled said policy.
"The judge stopped short of enjoining the regulation's enforcement and or vacating it, noting another Trump appointee in Lubbock, Texas, U.S. District Judge James Wesley Hendrix, had already on March 27 struck it down nationwide before Beaton could finish considering the case before him," Reuters explained.
Meanwhile, Senator Kevin Cramer, who commented on both decisions, argued that the emissions reduction policy is an overreach on Biden's part. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) rule requires states to measure tailpipe emissions on the National Highway System and then establish decreasing targets to reduce road travel emissions.
"As I’ve said repeatedly over the past year, Congress debated and declined to give FHWA the authority to promulgate this rule, yet the agency pushed forward anyway. These rulings underscore agencies must abide by the law, not invent the authority they desire. North Dakota resoundingly rejects this illegal rule. North Dakota’s Department of Transportation objected in writing, the state joined this litigation, and I am leading bipartisan legislation to kill it. The Biden administration should’ve never introduced this rule, but now they should recognize their failures and drop it," Cramer detailed in a statement published on his official website.
