Transportation
The Georgetown Climate Center works with state and federal officials and other stakeholders to help bridge any policy gaps that emerge between transportation and climate policy. The Center also assists states in forging ahead with the deployment of infrastructure for electric and clean fuel vehicles, freight efficiency planning, and transportation policies that reinforce the development and maintenance of sustainable communities.
One of the Center's biggest projects is the facilitation of the Transportation and Climate Initiative - a collaboration of 11 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states plus the District of Columbia.
News and Updates
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has clarified how federal highway funds may be used to respond to increasing threats from climate change impacts, including extreme weather.
FHWA authorized state Departments of Transportation, metropolitan planning organizations, local agencies, and federal land management agencies to use federal aid and the Federal Lands Highway funds to consider the potential impacts of climate change and extreme weather events and to apply strategies to adapt to those changes. Examples of eligible activities include:
- Vulnerability and risk assessments of federal-aid-eligible highways related to climate change and extreme weather events;
- Consideration of climate change and extreme weather events in highway...
On November 15, 2012, the California Air Resources Board (ARB) voted to harmonize their greenhouse gas reduction standards for model year 2017-2015 vehicles with those from the federal government.
The California ARB will accept U.S. EPA's greenhouse gas standards, which EPA and the Department of Transportation finalized in August along with fuel economy standards of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. There are several slight differences between the state and federal rules, but California calculated the difference would be only a 4.5 percent loss in greenhouse gas reductions within the state.
The national standards will result in 569 million metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions by...
The Georgetown Climate Center has produced a summary of the federal transportation reauthorization legislation, "Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act" (MAP-21), which became law in July 2012. This document identifies provisions of the Act that relate to efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to climate change, and can be found in Center's legislative tracker along with summaries of other relevant climate, transportation, and adaptation bills recently introduced in Congress.
Download the full summary by clicking on the link below:
The Transportation and Climate Initiative released a market overview and literature review today that provides an overview of plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) deployment in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states.
The report assesses current electric vehicle and electric vehicle charging station technology, looks at the state of PEV markets, reviews the benefits of PEV deployment, and identifies the barriers and challenges to PEVs in gaining market acceptance. The document is intended to serve as a resource for consumers and policy makers who seek to better understand the nature of and challenges facing electric vehicle deployment in the TCI region.
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On August 28, 2012, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) released a final rule to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve fuel economy for light-duty vehicles for Model Years (MY) 2017-2025. The rule, proposed on December 1, 2011, increases average fuel economy requirements for cars and light-...
From highways to airports to nuclear power plants, infrastructure in the U.S. is increasingly under stress from extreme heat, drought, flooding, and other climate change impacts.
In a recent New York Times article, Georgetown's Vicki Arroyo and other experts discuss the need for U.S. policymakers to begin adopting more common-sense solutions and long-term planning to help communities adapt to climate change.
On a single day this month here, a US Airways regional jet became stuck in asphalt that had softened in 100-degree temperatures, and a subway train derailed after the heat stretched the track so far that it kinked — inserting a sharp...
On June 21, 2012, New Hampshire enacted House Bill 1847, prohibiting the state from participating in any low-carbon fuel standard program without prior and express legislative approval. The law took effect without the signature of Governor John Lynch.
In December 2009, Lynch signed a memorandum of understanding with 10 other Northeast states to evaluate and develop a framework and model rule for a regional low-carbon fuel standard in the region. Building on this agreement, an ...
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