{"id":21821,"date":"2022-03-23T12:02:53","date_gmt":"2022-03-23T19:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=21821"},"modified":"2022-03-23T12:02:55","modified_gmt":"2022-03-23T19:02:55","slug":"what-an-ideal-green-new-deal-for-transportation-might-look-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2022\/03\/23\/what-an-ideal-green-new-deal-for-transportation-might-look-like\/","title":{"rendered":"WHAT AN IDEAL GREEN NEW DEAL FOR TRANSPORTATION MIGHT LOOK LIKE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Street Blog Editors<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0March 21, 2022 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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Image: Becker 1999<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This piece first appeared in Streetsblog USA<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A truly green new deal must focus on reducing the amount Americans drive, a new report argues \u2014 and doing so will take an unprecedented portfolio of investments into sustainable modes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a new report<\/a> from the Climate and Community Project, researchers said a better Green New Deal would transform U.S. transport policy into \u201ca strategic lever for investing in good-paying low-carbon jobs, justice, and a decarbonized economy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The details of that proposal contrast sharply from the Biden administration\u2019s primary strategies to clean the transportation sector, as evidenced by the recent surface transportation reauthorization bill, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which the group fears \u201ccould invest dramatically more on highway expansion than on innovative, low-carbon public transit projects.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that the IIJA is law, the group says it\u2019s more critical than ever that states hold themselves accountable for spending every penny of those funds sustainably (even if the outlook doesn\u2019t look good<\/a> in many communities), and that the Congress get to work now on new legislation to expand the pool of available funds for programs that get people out of cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLife in the United States is organized around personal automobiles powered by petroleum,\u201d the group wrote. \u201cFor a Green New Deal in transportation to be possible, that has to change. A climate-safe future requires a swift and just decarbonization of the transportation sector, a major expansion of public and active transportation, and the parallel decarbonization of the electricity sector.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the group\u2019s suggestions will be familiar to sustainable transportation advocates, who, like the report authors, are actively pushing for \u201cfix-it-first\u201d<\/a> policies on the nation\u2019s roads and bridges; expanding access to federal funding for transportation operations (the group says $25 billion a year is a good starting place); and pouring money into Amtrak and other intercity rail initiatives, to the tune of at least $40 billion a year for at least 10 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The IIJA, by contrast, provides the rail sector roughly $13 billion a year across five years, and the roughly $18 billion per year currently authorized for transit is mostly restricted to capital projects, like building train lines, rather than paying the people who keep them running. Worse, both pots of money are dwarfed by the approximately $22 billion in funds promised to highway agencies every year over the same period,.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group doesn\u2019t just want to turn up the dial on federal funding for existing green transportation initiatives, though. It also wants the Biden administration to consider a range of fresh ideas, such as: <\/p>\n\n\n\n