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
Transportation, environment and energy agency heads from 12 Northeast and Mid-Atlantic jurisdictions released an Agreement to Support Sustainable Communities on June 8.
The states will work together to promote sustainable communities that expand transportation options, promote economic prosperity, enhance natural resource protection, strengthen communities, and minimize environmental impacts. They will promote these communities through enhancement of state-level transportation policies that combine a smart growth land use planning approach with sustainable development concepts, and will work in partnership with community development, economic growth, and housing and land use agencies at the federal, local, and regional levels to foster this development.
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Agency heads from the 11 states that make up the Transportation and Climate Initiative approved the group’s first work plan in October.
The plan focuses on four key areas: 1) the development of clean vehicles and fuels, including the creation of a regional electric vehicle network, 2) promoting the development of sustainable communities, 3) implementing communication and information technology throughout the region and 4) improving the efficiency of freight transportation.
More than 90 policy makers and subject area experts from participating states are now engaged in the effort.
The Transportation and Climate Initiative was launched in June 2010 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in...
Eleven U.S. states and the District of Columbia announced today the creation of the Transportation and Climate Initiative (TCI) – a new regional transportation approach that will help states build the clean energy economy of the future.
The group, which includes top environment, energy and transportation officials from participating states, will work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, minimize the transportation system’s reliance on high-carbon fuels, promote sustainable growth and address the challenges of vehicle-miles traveled.
Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and the District of Columbia will participate, help shape the initiative’s work plan and...
At a Rose Garden ceremony today, President Obama directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to create a new national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from all medium- and heavy-duty trucks in model years 2014-2018.
Currently, trucks consume more than two million barrels of oil every day and emit 20 percent of greenhouse gas pollution related to transportation.
The President also called for a strengthening of standards for cars and light-duty trucks made in 2017 and beyond.
From the NY Times:
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At a Rose Garden ceremony today, President Obama directed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) to create a new national policy to increase fuel efficiency and decrease greenhouse gas emissions from all medium- and heavy-duty trucks in model years 2014-2018.
Currently, trucks consume more than two million barrels of oil every day and emit 20 percent of greenhouse gas pollution related to transportation.
The President also called for a strengthening of standards for cars and light-duty trucks made in 2017 and beyond....
By model year 2016, vehicles must get an average of 35.5 miles per gallon. The new fuel economy standards improve targets set in a 2007 energy law that mandated a 35 mpg average by 2020.
The standards also serve as an important example of the value that can be gained from state-federal partnerships on climate, energy and transportation issues. California pioneered the idea of greenhouse gas limits for vehicles, setting standards in 2004 that were adopted by 13 other states and the District of Columbia. Ultimately, those standards led to new federal requirements that were finalized today.
From the Washington Post:
"These...
The 56-page EPA study shows that a suite of initiatives to increase fuel efficiency and cut demand in the transportation sector could reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 1 billion metric tons per year by 2030.
EPA air chief Regina McCarthy discussed the findings during a March 24 Senate Environment & Public Works Committee hearing.
Inside EPA (subscription only) reports that “McCarthy noted that projected oil savings of 4 million to 7 million barrels per day represent a third to more than half of current oil imports and that GHG cuts would result in up to a 40 percent drop in...
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