As Senate lawmakers launch new efforts to curb the nation\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, some key members have joined local transportation officials and environmentalists to ask a seemingly relevant question: Where\u2019s the commitment to public transit?
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\n\u201cTransportation accounts for nearly one-third of our emissions, and yet it does not appear to be on Congress\u2019s radar screen as one third of the solution,\u201d Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), chairman of the Senate Banking Committee\u2019s subpanel on transportation, said during a hearing on the topic Tuesday. A failure to provide more funding for clean transit, Menendez added, would represent a failure to tackle climate change adequately.
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\nMichael Replogle, founder of the Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, told lawmakers Tuesday that, even as cars have become more efficient and fuels cleaner in recent decades, greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation have grown steadily over the same span.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur current policy framework guiding the development of surface transportation infrastructure in the U.S. is not designed to take into account [greenhouse gas] emissions,\u201d Replogle said. As Senate lawmakers launch new efforts to curb the nation\u2019s greenhouse gas emissions, some key members have joined local transportation officials and environmentalists to ask a seemingly relevant question: Where\u2019s the commitment to public transit? … \u201cTransportation accounts for nearly one-third of our emissions, and yet it does not appear to be on Congress\u2019s radar … <\/p>\n
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\nIgnoring mass transit solutions, according to many experts, is an oversight that could vastly limit the emission-reducing capabilities of whatever proposal eventually comes out of Boxer\u2019s committee.
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\nhttps:\/\/washingtonindependent.com\/49985\/public-transit-loses-to-polluters-in-climate-bill-subsidies<\/a>oldId.20090710081537606<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"