Jersey lawsuit is a ruse as Garden State pols just don’t want GWB drivers to pay

In commencing a flimsy lawsuit contending that the Federal Highway Administration took an impermissible shortcut in approving congestion pricing for cars entering Manhattan below 60th St., New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy is trying to get to the courts to order the feds to redo the environmental review process. At least that’s what the legal papers filed Friday in Newark Federal Court claim.

The truth is that Murphy and other Jersey pols who joined him say they all support congestion pricing, but not if Jersey drivers have to pay any price for their congesting cars coming into Manhattan.

At the inaugural meeting of the MTA’s Traffic Mobility Review Board two days before, the prime issue was who gets an exemption from the congestion fee. We support a full credit for drivers using all four tunnels: Two under the East River from the New York side — the Brooklyn–Battery and Queens–Midtown — and two under the Hudson from Jersey, the Holland and Lincoln.

What this fight is all about is the third Hudson crossing, the busiest bridge in the world, the George Washington.

Murphy and the rest want a credit for the GWB. If that was happening (and it really must not), there wouldn’t be any complaints and there wouldn’t be a federal case.

The blabber in the lawsuit is about the federal National Environmental Policy Act and its different levels of reviews. The lowest tier is called Categorical Exclusion, meaning that the project has zero impact on the environment. The next step up is an Environmental Assessment/Finding of No Significant Impact. And the highest degree of scrutiny is an Environmental Impact Statement.

The Trump administration, no friend to New York, dithered for months on the proposal. When the Biden team came in, after a fair consideration, it was decided to take the middle path, the Environmental Assessment. What followed was an exhaustive review of the plan, running 4,000 pages as the MTA tested every possible permutation.

Murphy says that more oversight is needed and that the process should have been the even more exhaustive Environmental Impact Statement. The outcome would be the same, namely that congestion pricing doesn’t add to pollution, but actually reduces it, by dissuading some drivers from driving. So instead of the tolling starting next spring, it would be put off for a few more years.

Should Murphy somehow persuade the courts of the soundness of his weak argument, congestion pricing would begin only after he’s left office and there would be a new governor in Trenton. Meanwhile, everything else would be the same and hopefully there would still be no credit for the GWB.

Murphy’s friend, Gov. Hochul, is not deterred by his lawsuit, saying, “congestion pricing is going to happen. It has gone through a long process of review at the federal level — the environmentals have already been studied.”

He wants more study, not to learn more that couldn’t be gleaned from the 4,000 pages, but only to delay. While New York hasn’t been sued, Uncle Sam has, Hochul insists that “The State of New York is committed.”

While Murphy tries to force the Federal Highway Administration to go start over, Hochul and New York must continue to get ready to start the tolling in the spring.

The Daily News Flash

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