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Thanks TSgt Joe C. for letting us know that on January 2, 1974 President Richard M. Nixon signed the Emergency Highway Energy Conservation Act, setting a new national maximum speed limit.
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A great example of the federal government extortion of state and local governments. The "national speed limit" is entirely meaningless and toothless without the compliance clause.
The act withheld federal dollars from states that did not lower speed limits to comply with the federal directive. Basically, do what we say or no money for your roads and other transportation needs. Western states were particularly pissed off. As stated in the article, Western states are home to the country’s longest, straightest and most monotonous rural highways, and only grudgingly complied.
(Yes "extortion" is the wrong word, but it still conveys the coercion nature of the act)
The act withheld federal dollars from states that did not lower speed limits to comply with the federal directive. Basically, do what we say or no money for your roads and other transportation needs. Western states were particularly pissed off. As stated in the article, Western states are home to the country’s longest, straightest and most monotonous rural highways, and only grudgingly complied.
(Yes "extortion" is the wrong word, but it still conveys the coercion nature of the act)
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