New Jersey was at federal court this week to challenge the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s imminent plan to impose a controversial $15 per car congestion-pricing toll for vehicles driving into Manhattan’s business district.
With little time to spare, the Murphy administration claimed the plan will only divert more traffic through local neighborhoods, without offering to mitigate the environmental impact of added air pollution — or sharing any of the revenue with NJ Transit agencies.
“The reality is New Jerseyans are going to be paying the price tag, and New Jerseyans are going to be experiencing a lot of the adverse environmental effects of this plan,” attorney Randy Mastro told the court.
Mastro called the approval process “backwards” and incomplete, noting the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) found no significant environmental impact before the MTA actually voted on a finalized plan.
“The FHWA greenlit the project before it was approved,” he told the court. “This process is fundamentally flawed, and they can’t fix it in two months.”
The FHWA’s attorney explained it will review its environmental impact assessment — as required by law — although without further input from the public. That could result in a new, full environmental impact statement, which could take years.
As for New Jersey’s predicted traffic spike, MTA attorney Mark Chertok argued, “They don’t know that. New Jersey hasn’t studied it. They haven’t done any modeling . . . Their reasons are clear: Delay! Delay! Delay!”
Meanwhile, MTA attorney Robbie Kaplan discounted the claim Jersey will get no revenue: “The papers make very clear that money is going to be sent to mitigation to the New Jersey counties that need it.”
Hearing the case, U.S. District Judge Leo Gordon questioned how and when federal officials would reevaluate environmental impact on New Jersey. “Why should the court step in with a full judicial review over an administrative process that doesn’t appear to be final? Nobody has got enough data yet, to help me understand…”
Not everyone is against the plan, however. Environmental advocates argued in an amicus brief stating that overall congestion pricing is a good way to cut air pollutants.
New Jersey is pressing the court to order a full environmental impact study. Gov. Phil Murphy stated: “We’ve said . . . we’ll live with the results of that. That’s the fair, right thing to do here, given that you’re not eliminating pollution, you’re displacing it from Manhattan to New Jersey, and you’re charging our commuters an exorbitant fee, on top of that.”
The lawyers will continue their arguments Thursday and end with closing statements. Unless the court says otherwise, the MTA plans to launch congestion pricing in June.
