Arguments begin in N.J. suit vs. congest

Pricing

Attorneys for the MTA, the federal regulators, and the state of New Jersey squared off in Newark Wednesday for the first day of oral arguments in the Garden State’s congestion pricing suit.

The suit, brought by the administration of N.J. Gov. Phil Murphy in July, argues that the feds failed to conduct a

“comprehensive” and “complete” environmental review of New York’s plan, which New Jersey claims will cause pollution by changing regional traffic patterns.

The congestion pricing plan will charge most drivers $15 once a day to enter Midtown and lower Manhattan, and is expected to raise $1 billion a year in revenue for the MTA.

Attorney Randy Mastro, representing New Jersey, argued Wednesday that federal regulators hadn’t seriously considered alternative ways of reducing congestion and raising money for the MTA.

Mastro also argued that last year’s federal sign-off on the MTA’s environmental assessment was “done prematurely, because the final [tolling] plan was not yet announced.”

Lawyers for the MTA and the Federal Highway Administration, meanwhile, argued that New Jersey was simply seeking to delay the plan.

“They want delay,” Mark Chertok, an attorney for the MTA, said of New Jersey’s legal team. “They know delay is the handmaiden of project opponents.”

Both legal teams faced questioning by Judge Leo Gordon, who is expected to rule on both sides’ motions for summary judgment — ahead of the MTA’s projected congestion pricing start date of June 15.

A ruling in favor of federal regulators and the MTA would allow the tolling plan to move ahead. A ruling in favor of

New Jersey would require the transit agency to submit a full environmental impact statement to the feds, necessitating thousands of additional pages of study before tolling could potentially begin.

Much of Wednesday was spent on whether the MTA’s plans to mitigate expected upticks in truck traffic were extended equitably to New Jersey.

The agency’s environmental assessment flags several communities — including four in the Garden State — which are expected to see a greater number of diesel trucks as the congestion pricing plan affects traffic patterns.

While the MTA’s assessment specifically earmarks $155 million towards pollution mitigation, much of that money is bound for the Bronx.

“Bergen county has increases in every air pollutant,” Mastro said, but unlike the Bronx did not have any money set aside for mitigation.

“New York took care of its own,” the Garden State attorney said.

Attorneys for the defendants, however, said that the MTA would be funding mitigation measures, including air filtration, roadside vegetation and green spaces in the four New Jersey communities — Fort Lee, East Orange, Orange and Newark — even if the details hadn’t yet been worked out.

Arguments are expected to continue Thursday.