Transportation for America, the largest, most diverse coalition working on transportation reform, expressed support for key provisions of the Kerry-Lieberman American Power Act as a major endorsement of clean transportation options to spur energy independence and climate protection.

“On top of a number of other issues, our coalition has been working since day one to stress the essential need to connect America’s climate and energy goals with a renewed national vision for transportation that lessens our dependence on oil, reduces greenhouse gas emissions, and expands safe, clean and affordable transportation options for everyone,” said Transportation for America Director James Corless. “The American Power Act represents a key step towards creating a long-term policy that will meet our country’s future climate, energy and transportation goals.”

Senators Kerry (D-MA) and Lieberman (I-CT), with key support from Senator Carper (D-DE), made clear the critical connection between clean transportation and the environment by including necessary provisions that will ensure that revenues generated from the transportation sector go towards meeting the growing demand for more, better and cleaner transportation options, reduce oil consumption and decrease emissions.

“This legislation recognizes the critical role that transportation plays in our nation’s energy addiction,” said John Robert Smith, former mayor of Meridian, Miss., and president and CEO of Reconnecting America. “It gives communities additional funding to implement local plans to invest in community transit, complete streets or green freight facilities.”

Roughly a third of climate-harming emissions and 70 percent of oil consumed in the U.S. come from the transportation sector. As the BP oil spill so vividly reminds us, every gallon of oil we save not only helps the planet, but also makes our nation more secure. Key provisions of this bill would provide states and local communities with some of the resources needed to reduce this dependency by providing consumers with safe, clean and affordable options for public transportation, walking and bicycling, as well as better-managed, less congested highways.

These investments will help spur small businesses and expand American manufacturing of clean energy technologies that we will need to compete in a 21st century economy. Not only will this create jobs and expand our economy but it will help Americans spend less money at the gas tank and save money on transportation.

The bill sets national goals for reducing oil use and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, provides tools and resources for states and regions to measure current and projected future oil use and greenhouse emissions from transportation plans/projects, and requires that states and metro areas set emissions targets for reducing greenhouse gases and make plans to meet those targets.

It also provides $6.25 billion a year in clean-energy funding for states and regions to help them plan for a low-carbon future and build clean transportation projects. This funding is split three ways:

• $1.875 billion toward the TIGER grant program, a popular competitive grant program started in the stimulus bill
• $1.875 billion toward a new program to fund transportation projects that reduce oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions; and
• $2.5 billion to the Highway Trust Fund, eligibility for which is determined by emissions-reduction plans.

This is encouraging news for anyone who thinks that we need to invest transportation money from a climate bill into the kinds of cleaner options that will lower emissions, but the special interests that oppose clean transportation are going to pull out all the stops.

Please pick up the phone right now and make sure your senators know that you support these transportation provisions because they will help us invest in clean transportation options, reduce oil use and reduce emissions from the transportation sector. It will only take a few minutes, but your call could make a huge difference.

1. Call your senators right now by dialing the Senate Switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Tell the operator where you’re calling from to be connected to either of your senators.
2. Let the staff person answering the phone know your name and where you’re calling from – then say, “I’m calling because I support  the reductions in transportation emissions and $6 billion in investments in clean transportation options in the climate bill released today. I strongly urge the senator to support these provisions in the bill. To reduce our oil use and cut emissions, we’ve got to invest more in cleaner ways to get around.”
3. Pick up the phone one more time. Call the switchboard at (202) 224-3121, ask to be connected to your other senator and leave the same message.
4. Then, report your calls back to us, so we can follow up directly with your senators and increase your impact.

Tell your Senators you support these investments in clean transportation. We need to reduce oil use and emissions while beginning the critical task of rebuilding and modernizing our transportation network!

The long-awaited allocations in the Senate climate bill were released over the weekend, and the news is good for increasing access to cleaner transportation options. Late Friday evening, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee released the final numbers on where the revenues raised under a cap-and-trade climate bill would be directed.

The Senate nearly triples the funding for clean, sustainable transportation over the House climate bill, which only set aside an optional one percent of funding. (Streetsblog Capitol Hill has some details on the allocations.)

After hearing from advocates and their colleagues in the Senate, the authors of the Senate climate bill agreed to include a higher, guaranteed level of funding (roughly 2.4% over the life of the bill) for clean transportation options, such as public transportation, affordable neighborhoods around transit stops, vanpooling and streets safe for walking and biking.

We want to let the Senate know, especially those committee members, that we appreciate their leadership on this issue and we want them to defend that funding as the bill moves through other Senate committees. There is still a long road ahead for the climate bill and the Senate needs to know you will support their efforts to continue fighting for more money for clean transportation.

Take a moment to thank senators for making clean transportation part of the climate bill — and tell them to defend that money over the coming weeks.

Transportation for America is happy for the strong transportation provisions, but we are not stopping at 2.4%. We’re going to continue asking the Senate to increase that amount as the bill moves forward. It only makes sense — transportation pollution is responsible for nearly one-third of our national greenhouse gas emissions.

We applaud Sen. Barbara Boxer and the rest of the Senate EPW Committee for this strong statement that funding clean transportation options is a vital part of reducing our emissions.

Our transportation investments and the built environment — what we build and where — have an enormous impact on our health and the cost of our health care.

With the debate over health care reform dominating the news daily, Transportation for America and coalition members from across the country took that powerful — yet often ignored or neglected — message to Capitol Hill leaders.

T4 America’s “health fly-in” last Friday connected health professionals and advocates from across the country with their Congressional representatives to highlight the impact that transportation has on our health and wellness.

T4 America kicked off the day with a briefing from campaign director James Corless and four other nationally recognized experts on health and transportation. Then, participants from across the country, from the Pacific Northwest to New England, split up and took the message to their representatives, visiting a total of 37 Congressional offices.

Among the 25 participants in the fly-in, six hailed from national groups and 19 from state and local organizations. Several, including fourteen-year-old childhood wellness advocate Julia Lopez and UCLA professor Dr. Richard Jackson, traveled all the way from California. (Look for a full list of organizations at the bottom of the post)

During the meetings, advocates discussed how the built environment — where we live, work and play — has a profound impact on obesity rates, diabetes, asthma and other quality of life measures. And they discussed policy prescriptions that can increase walkability, grow transit ridership and make physical activity a normal part of our daily routine.

“As a pediatrician and child advocate, my job is to do what I can to make sure as many kids as possible live healthy lives, and the biggest threats to them at this time are injuries — both violent and unintentional — and obesity,” said Dr. Katherine Kaufer Christoffel, a medical and research director at Northwestern University.

“This active transportation stuff really gets at all of those things.”

Dr. Joe Thompson, Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Center to Prevent Childhood Obesity, participated as a briefing panelist but did not attend Congressional meetings. Thompson serves as the Surgeon General of the State of Arkansas, where an alarming 22 percent of children are obese and 40 percent are overweight. Thompson said the built environment is a critical component of America’s livelihood.

“If we don’t solve the upstream causes of health problems, we won’t be able to hold health care reform together,” he said.

207 Originally uploaded by Transportation for America

14 year-old health advocate Julia Lopez chats with attendees of the health fly-in after making a few remarks.

Noelle Dobson, Director of the Healthy Eating Active Living initiative at Portland’s Community Health Partnership, has been stressing the link between health and transportation through her work preparing health impact assessments for new development projects.

“This is all public health has ever been about for me,” she said.

T4 America and participating advocates were promoting three important pieces of legislation that address the health and transportation connection.

One is CLEAN-TEA, a Senate bill that would allocate ten percent of revenue from climate legislation toward clean transportation, walking and biking, and other modes that can help reduce emissions. The second is the National Transportation Objectives Act, which would create explicit, specific targets and benchmarks for the transportation bill, including goals like reducing CO2 from transportation by 40%, eliminating at-risk exposure to pollution, and tripling the amount of walking and biking we do.  Lastly is Complete Streets legislation to make our streets safe and  accommodating for all users and people — bus riders, bicyclists and pedestrians.

Most fly-in participants met with their representatives’ transportation staffers, but a few were able to meet face-to-face with the representatives themselves. Heidi Klein, a board member for the Vermont Public Health Association, got a few words in with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, and two fly-in participants from Montana had the chance to meet their junior Senator, Democrat Jon Tester.

Other office visits included Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Our thanks to the many advocates and supporters who worked very hard to take this crucial message to Capitol Hill.

Participating organizations:

• National Recreation and Park Association
• National Coalition for Promoting Physical Activity
• Campaign to End Obesity
• American Public Health Association
• American Lung Association
• PolicyLink
• National Complete Streets Coalition
• Trust for America’s Health
• America Bikes
• Safe Routes to School
• State and Territorial Injury Prevention Directors Association (STIPDA)

To truly address climate change, the Senate has to fix the serious funding gap in the House climate bill: The House bill directs only an optional one percent of the money it will raise toward clean transportation options, even though nearly one-third of our CO² emissions come from transportation.

Tell your Senators: You can’t solve 30% of the problem with only 1% of the funding.

Now is the time to make ourselves heard: The Senate climate bill doesn’t contain any funding levels yet, so there is still an opportunity to make sure that it includes enough funding to create cleaner, more affordable transportation options for everyday Americans.

Senators Boxer and Kerry deserve our thanks and support — the bill already makes significant strides toward cleaner transportation. It would direct states and metro areas to make plans to reduce transportation emissions and set targets over the coming decades. These goals are a tremendous — and essential — component of the legislation.

But these targets will be nearly impossible to meet if the bill only provides a miniscule share of its funding for cleaner and more fuel-efficient transportation.

Help make sure we both set meaningful goals AND provide communities with the means to reach them. Tell your Senators to adequately fund clean transportation in the climate bill.

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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.

A proposal in the Senate called CLEAN-TEA would direct funding to clean transportation investments — like public transportation and passenger rail, affordable neighborhoods around transit stops, and neighborhood improvements that increase safety for cyclists and pedestrians.

The Environment and Public Works Committee, under the leadership of Sen. Boxer, will ultimately decide whether or not to include CLEAN-TEA (S.575) in the Senate climate bill they’re drafting right now.  There are currently six co-sponsors out of 19 committee members. If we can get a majority (10) of the committee to sponsor this legislation, we’ll be sending a powerful signal to the Chairman that it should be included.  Help us send a strong message to Chairman Boxer that more funding for clean transportation options have to be part of the Senate climate bill by getting more co-sponsors for CLEAN-TEA.

We need as many Senate sponsors as possible for this important bill, but sponsors from the EPW committee in particular. So especially if you live in an EPW member’s state (below), please call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121, ask to be connected to your Senator’s office and leave a message with a staffer.

Tell them that “the U.S. transportation sector accounts for one third of our greenhouse gas emissions, yet current climate legislation directs only one percent of funding to cleaner transportation options.  Senator ____ can help change that by co-sponsoring S. 575, or CLEAN-TEA, as its called. By including CLEAN-TEA in climate legislation you will not only ensure greater investment in low carbon transportation options, but will also help put us on the path to energy independence, reduce transportation costs for Americans, and create jobs to build out clean, green transportation infrastructure. ”

The 6 CLEAN-TEA sponsors would love to hear your support. If you live in any of these states below, call the Congressional Switchboard at 202-224-3121, ask to be connected to your Senator’s office below, and tell the staffer that answers that you support their choice to sponsor CLEAN-TEA. Tell them that you agree it’s imperative that we direct climate revenues to help us clean up transportation — the sector responsible for 30% of our emissions, and that this bill is a step in the right direction. Tell them you appreciate your leadership on the issue and you’re done.

Call and thank these sponsors:

• Delaware: Sen. Thomas Carper
• Pennsylvania: Sen. Arlen Specter
• Maryland: Sen. Ben Cardin
• New Jersey: Sen. Frank Lautenberg
• New York: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
• Oregon: Sen. Jeff Merkley

Did you make a phone call? Spread the word on Twitter. If you’ve got any questions, ask away in the comments.

UPDATED: Some good quotes from sponsoring Sens. Cardin and Carper in Streetsblog Capitol Hill: “She fully understands the fact that we can’t get from here to there [on emissions] without addressing transportation,” Carper told Streetsblog Capitol Hill. …”I think 10 percent’s right,” Cardin told Streetsblog Capitol Hill.