DOT Proposal Would Require States To Track Carbon Emissions From Driving

Original article appeared in the Washington Post, July 7, 2022.

The Department of Transportation on Thursday proposed a new requirement that states and metropolitan areas measure the amount of carbon dioxide being released through driving on interstate highways and other major roads.

The proposed rule would obligate state and local officials to set targets to reduce emissions in the coming years, using 2021 as the baseline. It would add emissions to an existing list of performance measures — originating from transportation bills in 2012 and 2015 — that includes data on safety, congestion, pavement and other items.

Transportation is the top U.S. source of greenhouse gas emissions, and federal highway officials under President Biden say the proposed regulation is meant to bring clearer data, increased transparency and better decisions at all levels of government and among the driving public. The rule is intended to track and reduce tailpipe emissions that spur climate change.

The Biden administration effort is similar to a greenhouse gas measurement enacted in the final days of the Obama administration. The Trump administration, saying that earlier plan imposed “unnecessary regulatory burdens … with no predictable benefits,” repealed the requirement in 2018 before states had to take action.

“Climate change results from the incremental addition of [greenhouse gas] emissions from millions of individual sources, which collectively have a large impact on a global scale,” according to the proposal. It states that better information can increase public awareness about emissions trends and illuminate the “trade-offs among competing policy choices” of different types of transportation projects.

“We don’t have a moment to waste,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement. “Our approach gives states the flexibility they need to set their own emission reduction targets, while providing them with resources from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to meet those targets and protect their communities.”

Failing to hit the emissions targets would have little legal consequence. If significant progress is not made, the state transportation department “shall document the actions it will take to achieve the target,” according to the proposal.

The effort brought pushback from some Republicans and the road-building industry. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), ranking member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, said the greenhouse gas performance measure represents an overreach that was not part of last year’s infrastructure bill.

“Unfortunately, this action follows a common theme by both DOT and the administration, which is implementing partisan policy priorities they wish had been included in the bipartisan bill that the president signed into law,” she said in a statement.

Federal highway officials said they did not rely on any proposed legislation when developing the rule, “but rather statutory authority that has existed for a decade.”