Tag Archives: Department of Transportation (DOT)

When The Courts Limit The Bureaucracy, Life Is Good!

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On Friday, The Epoch Times reported that a Texas judge has struck down a regulation that was issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2023.

The article reports:

The rule was issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT)’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) in 2023 as part of President Biden’s efforts to slash carbon emissions in half by 2030.

Specifically, it required state transportation departments and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to both measure their transportation-related emissions on the U.S. highway system and set their own emission reduction targets.

Additionally, the measure required state DOTs and MPOs to report biennially on their progress in meeting the declining targets. FHWA would also assess the state’s progress toward achieving those targets, according to the rule.

Texas sued the DOT in December, arguing the agency lacked legal authority from Congress to enact the rule, and that it violates the Administrative Procedure Act.

In his ruling, Judge James Hendrix of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas agreed, stating that the Biden administration lacked authority under law to impose the greenhouse gas emissions performance measure.

“When a regulation attempts to override statutory text, the regulation loses every time, regulations can’t punch holes in the rules Congress has laid down,” the judge wrote, citing a previous case, Djie v. Garland.

The article concludes:

In finalizing the rule in December last year, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the performance measure would provide states with a “clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution and the flexibility to set their own climate targets.” Officials also said transportation is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

A spokesperson for the highway administration, which is part of the Transportation Department, told The Epoch Times in an emailed statement: “ The Department of Transportation (DOT) and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) remain committed to supporting the Biden-Harris Administration’s climate goals of cutting carbon pollution in half by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”

“We are reviewing the Texas court’s decision and determining next steps,” the spokesperson added.

When are we going to go back to the time that the people who were elected to make the laws made the laws. We are being governed by a bunch of unelected bureaucrats, and that is not what our Founding Fathers designed. It’s time for Congress to read the Constitution and take their responsibilities seriously.

 

 

Misplaced Priorities?

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The Biden administration has set new records for misplaced priorities. Rather than support the American oil industry, they are going hat in hand to dictatorships asking them to increase oil production. They are promoting green energy which uses numerous components that China has monopolies on, supporting the Chinese economy while ignoring American workers. Transgender indoctrination in our schools is replacing basic education and critical thinking. Now we have an amazing story about the priorities of the Department of Transportation.

On October 7th, The First reported:

The supply chain is still not fixed, airlines are a mess, roads and bridges are crumbling everywhere and our Transportation Secretary is worried about making sure the fish can get where they need to go. 

The article notes:

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg unveiled a new national strategy Friday to “replace culverts currently obstructing fish passages.”

“Today, we launched a national program to fix and replace culverts currently obstructing fish passages and leaving roads vulnerable to flooding. This will bring environmental and economic benefits here in the Pacific Northwest and across America,” posted Buttigieg on Twitter.

As The Infrastructure Bill Inches Forward

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There are a few twists and turns in the process of dealing with the infrastructure bill that is before Congress.

The Epoch Times reported yesterday:

Buried in the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” in the U.S. Senate is approval for the Department of Transportation (DOT) to test a new federal tax on every mile driven by individual Americans.

The bill directs Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to establish a pilot program to demonstrate a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee designed “to restore and maintain the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund.”

The objectives of the pilot program include:

To test the design, acceptance, implementation, and financial sustainability of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

To address the need for additional revenue for surface transportation infrastructure and a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

To provide recommendations relating to the adoption and implementation of a national motor vehicle per-mile user fee.

Although the new tax is described as a pilot program and would initially rely upon “volunteers” representing all 50 states, the infrastructure measure would also require the Treasury Department to establish a mechanism to collect motor vehicle per-mile user fees from the participants.

Make no mistake–this will eventually be a tax on all Americans if it is allowed to go through.

On Monday, Breitbart reported:

Earlier in the year, President Joe Biden nominated Gayle (Manchin – Senator Joe Manchin’s wife) to be the co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission. This commission is an economic development partnership involving the federal government and 13 states.

The Washington Times reported that the bill’s language makes the Appalachian Regional Commission “set to receive an additional billion dollars over the next four years. The new funding is set to increase the agency’s federal budget by more than 50% annually.” This year the commission requested $235 million from the taxpayer-funded federal government for their operation funding. That was already a 30 percent increase from the $175 million they received in 2020.

For this to possibly secure the senator’s vote, the commission, where his wife makes $160 thousand annually, is given an additional $200 million annually to focus on projects, which equals one billion dollars from fiscal years 2022 to 2026. The Times added:

ARC’s funding increase is significantly larger than other federal regional commissions are set to receive in the infrastructure package.

Apart from money, the infrastructure package also expands the ARC’s authority to increase broadband internet access by providing grants and “technical assistance.”

The text of the bill was originally obtained exclusively by Breitbart News from U.S. Senate sources not authorized to leak it after showing “concern that the murky and secretive process behind this bill may have led to widespread corruption throughout its nearly three thousand pages.”

When there are almost three thousand pages in a bill, there are bound to be some questionable items.

And finally, Zero Hedge posted the following today:

An already-tenuous $1 trillion infrastructure spending package has been thrown into further disarray this week, after lawmakers filed nearly 300 amendments to the legislation, according to The Hill, which notes that in several instances “senators are holding their colleagues’ amendments hostage by objecting to voting on them unless their own priorities are also guaranteed a vote.”

Stay tuned.