Carper: Congress Must Address Climate Change in Surface Transportation Reauthorization Legislation

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), top Democrat on the Environment and Public Works Committee (D-Del.), addressed the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials’ annual Washington Briefing conference about the prospects for major transportation legislation in this Congress.

In his remarks, Senator Carper laid out his top priorities on transportation, including ensuring America’s national transportation system is redesigned to reduce harmful emissions that exacerbate climate change and to be more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

“The transportation sector is a major source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to the global emergency of climate change. I know some people don’t believe in climate change – I would just invite them to go to Ellicott City, which is not too far from where we are today, and where over the last two years alone they have experienced two thousand-year floods,” Senator Carper said.

“There are many things we need to do to address climate change, and one of them is through our work on surface transportation reauthorization. We have way too many people, in their cars, trucks and vans, just waiting to get through in traffic – we need to improve roadway conditions to reduce harmful emissions, while encouraging consumers to purchase electric or alternative fuel vehicles,” Senator Carper continued.

As negotiations on surface transportation reauthorization begin to gain steam, read more about Senator Carper’s priorities in his op-ed in the January/February edition of the American Road and Transportation Builder Association’s Transportation Builder magazine, which can be found on page 20 of the magazine.

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