A federal judge has ruled that the Biden administration was driving way out of its lane in adopting a 2023 rule that forced states to measure greenhouse gas emissions.
The ruling from U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, kills off a rule that wanted states to measure emissions from vehicles using the U.S. highway system and establish targets for declining carbon dioxide emissions, according to Fox News.
“A federal administrative agency cannot act without congressional authorization,” Hendrix wrote in his ruling, adding, “the Court concludes that the rule was unauthorized.”
Hendrix stayed the implementation of his ruling to allow the Biden administration to appeal.
This rule was issued in December by the Federal Highway Administration, which is part of the Department of Transportation, according to Reuters.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said the rule would “provide states with a clear and consistent framework to track carbon pollution and the flexibility to set their own climate targets.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the rule “unlawful climate mandates.”
A separate group of 21 states sued in December in Kentucky, also challenging the regulation. That lawsuit is still pending.
According to KIAH-TV, the rule was part of the Biden administration’s effort to hit “net zero emissions” by 2050.
In the ruling, Hendrix said wiping out the rule was an extreme step, but one with few consequences because the first report date under the rule was March 29.
He said that regardless of the intentions of the rule, the Biden administration went about it all wrong.
“If the people, through Congress, believe that the states should spend the time and money necessary to measure and report GHG emissions and set declining emission targets, they may do so by amending Section 150 or passing a new law,” he wrote, referring to the section of law amended by the Biden administration.
“But an agency cannot make this decision for the people,” he wrote.
“An agency can only do what the people authorize it to do, and the plain language of Section 150(c)(3) and its related statutory provisions demonstrate the DOT was not authorized to enact the 2023 Rule,” he wrote.
Hendrix wrote that in developing rules for highway aid to the states “Congress specifically excluded other environmental purposes.”
“Importantly, none of the provisions touch a subject even remotely related to CO2 emissions by vehicles on the Interstate System or National Highway System. They are each more limited in scope to particular aspects of environmental impacts of the interstate and national-highway systems,” he wrote.
“The specific inclusion of these authorized environmental purposes — and the omission of anything related to GHG emissions — further weigh against adopting the DOT’s broad interpretation of ‘performance,’” he wrote.
“[T]the statutory context consistently instructs the Court to reject the DOT’s expansive interpretation. Thus, the Court concludes that the DOT’s GHG emission measure is unauthorized by the statute,” he wrote, using an acronym for greenhouse gases.
“A federal administrative agency cannot act without congressional authorization,” “the Court concludes that the rule was unauthorized.”
(U.S. District Court Judge James Wesley Hendrix) Does this mean that “we, the people,” do not have the legal obligation to obey the rules, mandates, and regulations that the IRS, EPA, DOT, the WHO, or any of the other US agencies, have issued? The American people remember the whistleblower who revealed that every US agency participated with the DoD, CIA, CCP, CDC, Fauci, and Gates, in the Covid-19 bio-weapons attack on America, from which the American people still suffer, greatly. This ruling will be the death of every agency that we have. Every rule, that all of these agencies have put on us, without congressional authorization, has never been enforceable and has always depended upon our voluntary compliance. None of the DOT’s rules are compulsory if not authorized by Congress. None carry the “weight of law,” as indicated in the Hendrix ruling. A rule, mandate, or regulation, issued, by any of these agencies, which has not been authorized by an act of Congress, is not legally binding and is unenforceable. We do not have to comply with any of them. No rule, issued by any of these agencies, that was not authorized by an act of Congress, can collect penalties for non-compliance. Every fine that these agencies collect must be returned. All compliance is voluntary under the Hendrix decision because the implementation of any regulation, mandate, or rule issued by any agency must be authorized by an act of Congress. Therefore, non-compliance is not a violation of “law ” and “non-compliance” cannot be penalized. All of the industry-killing rules, that the DOT has issued against the trucking industry, that were not authorized by an act of Congress, (and none of them have been), according to this Hendrix decision, are rendered null, void, and unenforceable. Why? Congress cannot delegate its statutory authority, to regulate industry and commerce, to an unappointed, unaccountable, and unelected corporation/agency that acts outside of the authority of the US Congress. All agencies are illegal entities that do not have the Constitutional authority to regulate commerce or industry without an act of Congress instructing them to do so. These agencies’ power to regulate is not supported by the Constitution. No rule, regulation, or mandate can be effective without an act of Congress to endow it with the legitimacy of the weight of “law.” Nor does any agency have the authority to compel compliance with any of their mandates, regulations, and rules. The Hendrix decision, once and for all, establishes the principle that Congress is the only entity authorized, by the Constitution, to pass laws, regulations, and mandates.
FJB and ALL demorats