Federal Policy

Federal Transport & Climate Policy

Thanks for checking out the Federal Transportation and Climate Change Policy section of the blog.  This page will be continually updated as policy develops at the federal level.

Connecting Transportation and Climate Change Policy

With numerous bills and countless revisions pertaining to the topic of travel efficiency, metropolitan planning, and the link to climate change, it is not surprising most people are confused about the status and evolution of federal legislation that will have impacts on our planet and communities within it for generations to come.  Below is my attempt to simplify the many relevant bills, drawing comparisons across them and explaining a bit about their background.  The important thing to remember when reading about these various bills is that Waxman-Markey/Boxer-Kerry is the climate change bill with a small emphasis on the role of metropolitan/transportation planning, while Oberstar’s proposal is a transportation reauthorization containing a short section on greenhouse gas requirements.  As of now, each legislative draft references language in the other.

Federal Policy

Senate Climate Change Bill (Boxer-Kerry)

  • Click on the link above to navigate to full posting on the “Clean Energy Jobs and the American Power Act”, including status updates and relevant legislative language

House Climate Change Bill (Waxman-Markey)

  • Click on link above to navigate to full posting on the “American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009″, including status updates and relevant legislative language

Transportation Reauthorization Bill (Oberstar)

  • Click on link above to navigate to full posting on the “Surface Transportation Authorization Act of 2009″, including status updates and relevant legislative language

CLEAN-TEA (Carper)

  • Click on link above to view the full text of the “Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable, New Transportation Efficiency Act”.  The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works may choose to incorporate all or part of CLEAN-TEA into the transportation section of the Waxman-Markey bill.  The benefit of this smaller piece of legislation is that is it solely focused on the needs of local and regional planning in order to meet GHG reduction targets.  The legislation addressed the demand-side of the problem, rather than the supply-side (which Oberstar’s bill focuses on).  Carper’s bill is full of strong language regarding funding allocations such as for transportation demand management, congestion pricing, complete streets strategies, updates to zoning and land use regulations for coordinating local and regional plans, supporting infill, improving travel/land use data collection, and updating travel models.
  • Check out Smart Growth America’s CLEAN-TEA fact sheet: CLEAN-TEA Fact Sheet

To see a matrix comparing these major pieces of legislation click the following link: Center for Clean Air Policy Comparison of Federal Climate Change and Transportation Legislation

- By Lauren Hilliard – to see more on climate change and transportation policy check out her Web site Moving Slower.