Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Climate Change

Trump Administration Trying to Snuff Out Climate Progress at U.S. DOT

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 3, 2017 | 2 Comments

The White House is trying to squash assessments of how transportation projects affect carbon pollution. NRDC, Clean Air Carolina, and U.S. PIRG are suing the administration to ensure these climate impacts are publicly disclosed.

What Would It Take to Eliminate Carbon Emissions From U.S. Transportation?

By Angie Schmitt | Oct 26, 2016 | 57 Comments

To do its part to avert catastrophic climate change, the United States would have to more or less eliminate carbon emissions from transportation in the next 35 years. But America is nowhere near on pace to make that happen. Transportation recently overtook the electric power sector to become the nation’s largest source of carbon emissions. That’s what […]

Yes, Local Transportation Agencies Can Measure Their Climate Impacts

By Mitchell Beer | Aug 24, 2016 | 1 Comment

It’s going to be a tough sell for those who claim that greenhouse gas performance measures for transportation can’t possibly work, when plenty of transportation agencies say it would be no problem. That’s according to transportation officials in several regions across America who responded to a survey commissioned by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The responses were […]

Stark Divisions Between Dems and GOP on Climate Impacts of Transportation

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 22, 2016 | 17 Comments

How polarized are the two political parties on key questions about transportation policy and climate change? As you can imagine, the answer is “very.” The senior Democrat and Republican on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — California’s Barbara Boxer and Oklahoma’s Jim Inhofe, respectively — each wrote an opinion this week for the Eno Center for […]

U.S. Transportation Now Belches Out More Carbon Than U.S. Electricity

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 5, 2016 | 10 Comments

For the first time in almost four decades, the nation’s tailpipes now spew out more carbon emissions than the nation’s smokestacks. It’s an indication of how slowly the American transportation sector is rising to the challenge of preventing catastrophic climate change. Over the past 12 months, carbon emissions from cars and trucks have exceeded carbon emissions from electric power — the first time that’s happened […]

Survey: Americans Want DOTs to Factor Climate Change in Their Decisions

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 5, 2016 | 3 Comments

Should we continue to let state transportation departments spend tens of billions of dollars in federal funds each year without regard to how highway expansions contribute to climate change? Right now U.S. DOT is looking to inject some accountability into a process that has created a very carbon-intensive transportation system, and a new poll suggests most Americans […]

Show More Stories