Hearings began in New Jersey’s federal lawsuit against its neighbor New York in one of several lawsuits surrounding New York City’s new congestion pricing.

New Jersey’s lawsuit hinges on environmental concerns and burdens placed on the Garden State due to the new rule, which was approved last week. Starting in June, cars entering Manhattan below 60th Street will be charged $15 during weekdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

“The end result is that New Jersey will bear much of the burden of this congestion pricing scheme-in terms of environmental, financial, and human impacts, but receive none of its benefits,” the state’s lawsuit said.

In court hearings in Newark on Wednesday, Randy Mastro, an attorney for the state of New Jersey, argued that an environmental impact study should have been done before the pricing went into effect. 

“This is the first congestion pricing program of its kind in national history,” Mastro asked. “Shouldn’t it have undergone a full Environmental Impact Statement? This was done backwards. The agency must do it over.”

Mark Chertok, representing the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said New Jersey’s legal challenge is money-based. The MTA plan does not allocate funds for NJ Transit or the PATH, which runs from Manhattan to urban New Jersey cities, such as Hoboken, Newark, and Jersey City. 

“The case for New Jersey is they aren’t getting a share,” Chertok said. “The analysis in the environmental assessment was extensive, including New Jersey.”

Mastro argued that while New York agreed to spend $150 million on the effects of the new plan on pollution, it did not commit financially to the same problems in New Jersey.

Gov. Phil Murphy (D-NJ) said the new law does not mitigate pollution as it aims. Murphy argued that it places an additional burden on New Jersey commuters. 

“Our main legal action has been to sue to ask the Biden administration, the Department of Transportation, to do a full-bore environmental study. We’ve said we’ll live with the results of that. You are not eliminating pollution, you are just displacing it from Manhattan to New Jersey,” Murphy said. “And you’re charging our commuters an exorbitant fee on top of that.”

It’s already expensive for New Jersey commuters to enter Manhattan. Currently, to cross the George Washington Bridge or the Holland Tunnel without an E-Z pass is $17.63. With an E-Z pass, tolls can range from $13.38 to $15.38, depending on the hours. 

Each day, 400,000 people from New Jersey commute into New York City. The new price hike will go to the MTA, which oversees the New York City subway and commuter trains into Westchester County, Long Island, and Connecticut. Regarding the controversy, the MTA said New Jersey profits off New Yorkers just as much as New York profits off New Jerseyans. 

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“You got to be kidding! New Jersey collects millions from New York drivers who use the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, but it’s somehow unconstitutional for New York to toll its own roads?” MTA’s chief of policy and external relations, John McCarthy, said in January.

New Jersey is requesting that congestion pricing be postponed until further research is done to study its impact on the state.