Reason Online: climate bill must do more for clean transportation

September 29, 2009
By Stephen Lee Davis

UPDATED: A Reason representative wrote us to note that Shirley Ybarra “updated her post to better clarify her position that infrastructure projects that improve mobility should be the transportation sector’s top priority.” Of course, T4 America believes that improving mobility and decreasing emissions can go hand in hand, with the right investments.

With the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee expected to release their version of the climate bill tomorrow, we’re all anxiously waiting to see what the bill will do to reduce emissions from transportation. The U.S. transportation sector produces one-third of our carbon emissions, yet the House’s version of the climate bill allocated only an optional one percent of cap-and-trade revenues to cleaner transportation options that can help us cut transportation emissions.

Will the Senate bill be better? We think so, but the Reason Foundation, a free-market think tank, wrote that it should be if we’re going to seriously tackle transportation emissions:

The funding allocations are not expected to be released until closer to the committee markup date. This could well be another contentious issue. For the transportation sector to play a greater role in reducing emissions and fuel consumption, the Senate bill will need to dedicate far more than 1% of its revenues to advance clean transportation projects.

We agree wholeheartedly, and have been urging the Senate to adopt a plan that would raise that number from one percent to 10 percent.

One percent won’t cut it if we’re really going to tackle a sector that generates a full third of our emissions. We’ve been supporting a proposal in the Senate (CLEAN-TEA) that would direct 10% of the funding towards public transportation, passenger rail, affordable neighborhoods around transit stops, and neighborhood improvements that increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

It’s going to be difficult to reach our climate goals if we don’t give states and localities to tools they need to make a dent in the emissions that come from transportation. Having just a tiny share of revenue going to clean transportation is like asking a carpenter to build a house without a hammer. It might be possible, but it’s significantly more difficult.

You can still call your Senator today and tell them that the Senate climate bill needs to invest in a cleaner transportation system. Find their phone numbers and brief talking points right here.

Filed under: Campaign Blog
Tags: CLEAN-TEA, climate, climate bill, featured, senate

Read these other trending stories from T4 America

http://www.bossyman15.com bossyman15

Wasn’t Reason Foundation against California High Speed Rail? Now they support clean transit. I still don’t trust them. They must be up to something.
http://home.earthlink.net/~roths/ Gabriel Roth

Why does the author repeat the fiction that “The U.S. transportation sector produces one-third of our carbon emissions”?

According to the EPA, the transportation sector is responsible for 28 percent of US Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGE) RESULTING FROM HUMAN ACTIVITY, which are less than 5% of GHGE due to CO2, which, in its turn, is less than 5 percent of total Greenhouse Gas, most of which is water vapor.

The proportion of “carbon emissions” due to transportation is therefore more like 28 percent of 5 percent, which is less than two percent of the total.

And, as “Carbon emissions” are less than 5 percent of total GHGE, the contribution of transportation to total US GHGE is 28 percent of 5 percent of 5 percent, which is less than one tenth of one percent.
http://t4america.org/author/sdavis/ Stephen Lee Davis

So to clarify, you’re saying that 1/10 of one percent of our national GHGs come from transportation? And 2 percent of our carbon emissions come from transportation? Did I read that right?
http://cartky.org Dave Morse

So how is the bill raising revenue? I don’t see my uncle’s Buick Brontosaurus paying into cap&Trade. Maybe it makes sense that the transportation sector also isn’t withdrawing from an account that its not paying into.
orbit7er

It is CO2 and other long-term greenhouse gases which lead to a possible feedback loop in which
increased warming from CO2 increases lead to corresponding increases in water vapor which in turn may lead to further warming. See http://lwf.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/gases.html#wv for more info.

Gabriel’s comment is another attempt to dismiss the crucial role of manmade increases in CO2 and other Greenhouse emissions in global warming.

Based on that reasoning we do not have to do anything about the 33% of CO2 contributed by transportation, coal power plants or any other human CO2 contributors!

CO2 is one of the key instigators of global warming and the fastest way to cut CO2 emissions in the US is by cutting cars and trucks which contribute 90% of transportation’s greenhouse emissions.

And the best way to do that is via mass transit and rail freight which gets cars and trucks off the road.

An illustrative success model of what is possible in a short period of time is Portland, Oregon which has actually CUT its greenhouse emissions below 1990 levels primarily by investing in mass transit and sustainable transit-oriented development instead of highways and suburban sprawl.

Oil usage and greenhouse emissions have gone down some 5-6% since 2008 with $4 gas leading to less driving and then the recession cutting further even as ironically mass transit was actually CUT.

Another success story is the recent opening decades late of train service to major events in the Meadowlands in New Jersey. The opening of this service was used by over 20,000 people taking thousands of cars off the New Jersey highways which have perennially been jammed every time there is a major Meadowlands event. If frequent and reasonably convenient mass transit is provided people will use it in droves to avoid traffic jams and stress.
http://t4america.org/author/sdavis/ Stephen Lee Davis

Dave, FYI, the transportation sector will be generating roughly 20% of the revenues raised by cap-and-trade, according to recent estimates. It’s not a matter of taking money out of something they won’t be contributing to — if anything, transportation will only be taking back a tiny fraction of the revenues generated by the sector.