The fate of New York’s congestion pricing plan is once again up in the air, as the state of New Jersey has filed for a last-minute injunction to stop the MTA toll set to begin in Midtown and lower Manhattan on Sunday.
Attorneys for the administration of N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy have filed an motion seeking to stop the toll pending federal regulators’ response to an order issued earlier this week by federal judge Leo Gordon that was spun by both sides as a win.
On Monday, Gordon issued a “remand in part” of the Federal Highway Administration’s approval of congestion tolling.
Gordon said the administration must account for why New York’s congestion pricing plan details specific pollution mitigations for the Bronx, but fails to detail such plans for several New Jersey towns even thought both regions are expected to see an increase in motor vehicle traffic after the plan goes into effect.
New Jersey’s request for an injunction comes just days before the MTA has said it will turn the tolling system on — drivers have been told to expect a toll starting Sunday morning.
A hearing on the motion is expected in Newark federal court Friday afternoon.
Attorneys for New Jersey are arguing that congestion tolling must wait at least until those explanations are filed, as the partial remand rescinds federal approval for the plan.
“New Jersey respectfully requests that the Court clarify that its remand also necessarily vacated the final [federal approvals] pending these further proceedings,” attorneys for New Jersey wrote.
“[D]espite the obvious import of this remand for further review on such a serious deficiency as mitigation, the MTA intends to alter the status quo and try to make congestion pricing a fait accompli starting January 5,” they continued.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. (Shawn Inglima for New York Daily News)
The Murphy administration’s suit — the first and most serious challenge to New York’s plan to toll drivers entering Midtown and Lower Manhattan — argues that changing traffic patterns from trucks and other vehicles seeking to avoid the toll will unfairly impact the air quality in New Jersey.
“The irreparable harm that New Jersey will suffer once the MTA flips the switch on congestion pricing is manifest,” N.J.’s lawyers wrote in seeking an injunction against a Sunday start. “Beginning on Day One, New Jersey will experience vehicle traffic increases and poorer air quality.”
The MTA’s own environmental assessment of the tolling plan acknowledged that truck traffic and pollution could increase in parts of the Bronx, upper Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey, but argued that all would benefit from a regional decrease in traffic as drivers opted for public transit.
The MTA has also repeatedly said New Jersey would be entitled to money toward pollution mitigations, but has not spelled out what those mitigations might be. The MTA has specifically earmarked money in the congestion tolling plan to fund an asthma center in the Bronx, as well as charging hubs for electric trucks and a renovation of the refrigeration system at the Hunts Point market, which is currently reliant on old diesel technology.
Judge Gordon also ruled on Monday that the FHWA should take the remand as an opportunity to explain why last month’s decision to phase in the toll at a lower initial rate does not have environmental effects, as well as to elaborate on its assessment of alternative plans since “a remand is already in order on the issue of mitigation.”