Democrats Seek Climate Change Considerations in Transportation Policy

A group of Congressional Democrats is urging the Transportation Department to prioritize consideration of climate change in transportation policy. In a request to Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, the group says, “we cannot make progress toward emissions reductions without a program to measure and report on performance.”

Led by Senator Ben Cardin, of Maryland, and Representative Earl Blumenauer, of Oregon, the coalition asked Buttigieg to reinstate the greenhouse gas measure for tailpipe emissions.

The Trump administration repealed the rule in 2018.

The greenhouse gas measure would have required state and local officials to provide consistent information on the 1% change in tailpipe carbon dioxide emissions from the reference year 2017. Officials were then required to set performance-based targets and regionally appropriate solutions to achieve those targets.

Through his first steps on climate change, the lawmakers also asked Buttigieg to improve the methods and procedures for accounting for the climate and environmental justice impacts of transportation decisions and investments.

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