Trump Administration Tries to Red Light NYC’s Congestion Pricing Project: “They Cannot Slam the Brakes on This Program”

Media Contact

Rita Yelda
Eastern Regional Communications Manager

NEW YORK – The Trump administration reversed course on New York City’s congestion pricing project today. New York’s six-week-old congestion pricing program, which the administration is seeking to kill, represents a transformative approach that is untangling congestion in Manhattan’s traffic-plagued central business district, cutting air pollution from cars and trucks, and injecting badly needed funds into the nation’s largest transit network.

Following is a reaction from Eric A. Goldstein, senior attorney at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), which has advocated for congestion pricing for more than a decade:

“The Trump administration’s action would bring traffic jams back to Manhattan, just as congestion pricing is proving that it can reduce traffic and improve mobility in the nation’s most congested business district. This wrong-way move would add time to commutes, slow deliveries, and hinder emergency vehicles.

“New York’s congestion pricing program has gone through extensive reviews and been tested in the courts and thus far the validity of this mobility-enhancing, pollution-reducing measure has been upheld in multiple federal court rulings.

“The U.S. Department of Transportation has a heavy burden to convince a court that its 180-degree reversal of its previous position approving congestion pricing is based on new factual information and not simply a change in administrations. There is no legal or factual basis to simply slam the brakes on this program.”

Learn more about the congestion pricing pilot program.

NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) is an international nonprofit environmental organization with more than 3 million members and online activists. Established in 1970, NRDC uses science, policy, law, and people power to confront the climate crisis, protect public health, and safeguard nature. NRDC has offices in New York City, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Beijing and Delhi (an office of NRDC India Pvt. Ltd). Visit us at www.nrdc.org and follow us on Twitter @NRDC.

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