Climate advocates have raised concerns about the real-world impact of the 2021 infrastructure bill, which could add more than 69 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent to the atmosphere by 2040 based on trends current spending by state transportation departments, according to an analysis by Transportation for America.
The advocacy organization’s policy associate, Corrigan Salerno, explained at a Feb. 14 media conference hosted by Climate Nexus that the analysis looked at 55,000 projects that states reported to the federal government. “Almost 25% of the [Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act] Formula dollars, specifically, states are spending for road expansion and another quarter is being spent on road resurfacing,” Salerno said.
“Overall, a lot of IIJA money risks perpetuating a problematic status quo, both by the law itself and by the state departments of transportation that spend those funds,” said Harrison Carpenter-Neuhaus, communications manager for Climate Nexus . during the briefing. “The other big factor here is that state departments of transportation also have broad discretion about where to put their funds.”
Carpenter-Neuhaus noted that the California Department of Transportation’s former deputy director of planning and modal programs was demoted and placed on leave when she threatened to file a whistleblower complaint about highway projects described as work of maintenance but that they intended to widen the roads. .
The Texas Department of Transportation has proposed a $12 billion widening of Interstate 45 in Houston over objections from dozens of organizations. According to Ally Smither, an organizer with Stop TxDOT I-45, the project would displace 1,079 homes, 344 businesses and five churches. But, Smither said during the briefing, “The real cost of this project is in human lives,” noting the noise, air pollution and generational wealth loss.
Many believe that new roads and widened roads create induced demand: more capacity invites more drivers. A classic example of this effect is the widening of Interstate 405 in California along a 10-mile stretch completed in 2015. Four years later, traffic was moving even slower during most hourly commutes point The California Department of Transportation acknowledges on its website that “induced demand creates more traffic at a greater cost to people and the environment, while worsening congestion.”
Not everyone agrees. Steven Polzin, a researcher at Arizona State University, argues in a policy brief for the Reason Foundation that traffic volume also increases because of population and job growth, new activities in the area served by new roads or extended and the choice of drivers to change trips. routes and timetables.
However, Transportation for America’s Salerno said at the recent briefing that “for every investment in freeway expansion, any other investment in emissions reduction strategies must be reduced to arrive at a net reduction relative to the baseline emissions that our transportation system was. is already creating.”
Transportation for the U.S.’s projection that the IIJA could add more than 69 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2040 was made before the reported possibility that the Biden administration would relax the standards of ’emissions for passenger vehicles and light trucks that could require 67% of new Light vehicle sales will be electric vehicles by the 2032 model year, several media outlets reported this weekend. The revised rule is expected to see electric vehicles make up less than 60 percent of new vehicles made by 2030, according to sources cited by Reuters.
“Unfortunately, the Biden Administration has put all of its transportation decarbonization eggs in the electrification basket, so slow EPA vehicle efficiency standards undermine EPA’s decarbonization effort administration for transportation,” Transportation for America Director Beth Osborne said in an emailed statement to Smart Cities. Immersion
Osborne added that the administration would be better prepared for the uncertainties of the electric vehicle transition “If the bipartisan infrastructure bill had invested in shifting our transportation spending from ineffective and harmful road expansion to road repair roads, bridge replacement, public transit, safe streets and more housing. close to jobs and opportunity.”
The US Environmental Protection Agency’s original proposed rule was met with immediate pushback from the auto industry and Congress. It also raised concerns for United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain, who wrote to UAW members last year: “The federal government is investing billions in the transition to electric vehicles, with no strings attached and no strings attached. with the workers”.
Initially, the UAW avoided endorsing President Joe Biden for re-election. According to The Washington Post, the EPA sent the final rule to the administration in January, and the UAW endorsed Biden shortly thereafter.
