Attorneys representing New Jersey, Bergen County, and Fort Lee asked a U.S. District Court judge to throw out last year’s federal approval of New York’s congestion pricing plan to charge $15 to enter lower Manhattan and order federal and MTA officials start the process all over again.
“They have to start from scratch,” attorney Randy Mastro said when U.S. District Court Senior Judge Leo M. Gordon asked what would be an appropriate remedy for the state during a Thursday hearing. “The pervasive flaws run so deep that merely remanding the issue would not help.”
Attorneys for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Federal Highway Administration disagreed with the assessment of their work and said the Environmental Assessment that was used to get a federal approval last June should stand.
“The methodology we used sustains it,” MTA attorney Mark Chertok said of the assessment and approvals. “They can’t show we didn’t take a hard look at congestion pricing.”
Congestion pricing, which was approved by New York’s legislature in 2019, is designed to reduce traffic, crashes, air pollution and raise $1 billion annually for New York’s subway, bus and commuter rail projects. A projected 80,00 to 110,000 commuters are forecasted to switch from driving to using mass transit, MTA officials said. New York would be the first American city to implement it.
New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit last July challenging the FHWA’s June approval of the MTA’s environmental assessment that allowed the agency to move congestion pricing forward. New Jersey’s is one of four lawsuits challenging the plan.
If the court ruled that an EIS were required, that would set the MTA’s clock to zero on congestion pricing, which the agency wants to implement on June 15.
“It’s what the law requires, there are so many impacts,” Mastro said. “This environmental assessment is deficient and New jersey will suffer, make the MTA and FHWA do it right.”
Attorney David Mateen, representing Bergen County, displayed a comparison chart from the environmental assessment showing how Bergen will suffer worse air pollution effects than the Bronx from traffic detouring around the congestion zone south of 60th Street in Manhattan by using the George Washington bridge.
Both Mateen and Mastro hammered the assessment figures showing pollution and traffic would be worse in Bergen, but not committing funds or actions to mitigate them. The FHWA committed $35 million in grants to mitigate adverse effects in the Bronx.
“We’re looking for appropriate mitigation so the community doesn’t suffer from the adverse effects, and we want the FONSI vacated and a full EIS done,” he said.
Attorney Bruce Nagel, representing Fort Lee, was more direct about the MTA having nothing to help Bergen County in assessment.
“Where’s the beef? There’s nothing there, no beef, no pickle, no roll,” Nagel said. “Bergen County gets nothing.”
Congestion pricing had other supporters in court. Attorney John Reichman represented 34 transportation and environmental groups who argued the 75% of New Jersey commuters who take mass transit to Manhattan will benefit from congestion pricing As will those who drive to the city and switch to MTA buses and subways from projects congestion pricing will finance on the MTA, they argued.
And, New Jersey’s position was called hypocritical because the New Jersey Turnpike Authority opted to do a similar assessment instead of a full EIS for a $6.2 billion project to replace the Newark Bay Bridge and widen the turnpike extension between Newark and Bayonne, Reichman said.
Andrew Otis, representing environmental justice groups, said his clients also support congestion pricing despite New Jersey’s argument that the assessment narrowed 14 identified environmental justice communities down to five, and said they may warrant mitigation.
At stake are vital improvement projects to the 100-year-old subway system that would benefit New Jersey commuters as much as New Yorkers, to be funded by congestion pricing revenues, Chertok argued for the MTA.
The case is now in the hands of Judge Gordon, who concluded the two days of hearings by acknowledging he is aware of the MTA’s desire to implement congestion pricing by June 15 and committing to having a ruling sometime before that date. Gordon and his staff have two days of testimony, piles of documents and several hundred pages of powerpoint presentations submitted by both sides to evaluate.
Stories by Larry Higgs
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry.