AUSTIN – Attorney General Ken Paxton has successfully stopped a Biden Administration edict that would have forced Texas to adopt unlawful greenhouse gas reporting measures after the Trump Administration dismissed the Biden Administration’s appeal of a lower court’s decision in Texas’s favor.
In December 2023, Attorney General Paxton sued the U.S. Department of Transportation (“DOT”) and Biden Administration officials to stop a federal rule that unlawfully attempted to force Texas to establish a declining carbon dioxide target associated with transportation as a performance measure for the Interstate and National Highway System. Under the rule, Texas would have been required to measure and report progress toward the achievement of the Biden Administration’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reach net zero by 2050.
In March 2024, Attorney General Paxton successfully argued that the unlawful rule should be vacated nationwide. That decision was appealed by the prior leadership at DOT, however, under President Trump, the federal government has now dismissed the Biden-era appeal. This dismissal allows the nationwide ban on the emission reporting rule obtained by Attorney General Paxton to remain in place.
“This is a major win for Texas and America. Working in partnership with President Trump, all of the Biden Administration’s unlawful regulations and blatant examples of federal overreach will be completely reversed,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The greenhouse gas emissions reporting regulation violated federal law and imposed arbitrary burdens on the States. The nationwide vacatur I obtained undoing Biden’s unlawful rule will remain in place.”
To read the dismissal, click here.
