(The Center Square) – Environmental groups and transit advocates are joining a federal lawsuit filed by New York City’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority seeking to overturn president Donald Trump’s decision to halt the city’s congestion pricing plan.
In a new legal filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Riders Alliance say a decision by Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to revoke approval for New York City’s congestion pricing program on Feb. 19 was “illegal” and included “serious legal mistakes” in the “rush” to terminate the program.
“The court should vacate the secretary’s decision and declare unlawful the Trump administration’s attempt to unilaterally deprive New Yorkers of the cleaner air and clearer streets that so many have worked toward for so long,” lawyers for the plaintiffs wrote in the 32-page complaint. “The people of New York City deserve to breathe.”
New York’s first-in-the-nation toll for drivers entering Manhattan’s Congestion Relief Zone during peak hours got underway on Jan. 5 after a U.S. District Court judge denied New Jersey’s last-ditch push to keep the plan from going into effect.
Under the program, passenger cars pay a $9 toll between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekdays and between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. on weekends. There are exemptions for emergency vehicles, including ambulances, fire trucks, police cars and other government vehicles. Residents with a household income of less than $60,000 can apply for a tax credit.
New York officials say the toll will reduce tailpipe pollution and drum up more funding for the cash-strapped Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates New York City’s fleet of buses, trains and subway cars.
Democratic New York Gov. Kathy Hochul abruptly hit the brakes on congestion pricing in June, citing the impact on commuters forced to pay higher tolls. But she resurrected the plan days after the Nov. 5 elections with a reduced base fare of $9 – down from the initial plan of $15. The new tolls will still hit $15 by 2031, according to the Hochul administration.
But Duffy called congestion pricing a “slap in the face” to working-class Americans and small business owners and said the program was being “driven primarily by the need to raise revenue” not reduce pollution.
But attorneys for the plaintiffs say in the lawsuit that Duffy’s “flimsy legal theory” won’t stand up in court and predicted they would prevail.
“In its rush to end congestion pricing, the Trump administration is selling a flimsy excuse to try and make an end run around what the laws require,” said Dror Ladin, a senior attorney at Earthjustice. “But the administration’s explanations don’t add up, and we’re confident that the courts are going to see through them just as easily as most New Yorkers do.”
