By Ron Thaniel
May 24, 2010

United States Senators John Kerry (MA) and Joseph I. Lieberman (CT) introduced the American Power Act on May 12 (see Climate story on page 7). Included in the draft bill is more than $6 billion annually to upgrade the nation's transportation infrastructure and improve the efficiency of transportation systems by providing $1.87 billion for a program modeled after the popular TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) competitive program, and $1.87 billion for a new competitive grant program to metropolitan areas and states to fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, $2.5 billion for the Highway Trust Fund, and up to $187.5 million to states and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) to implement new strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

Overall, the draft bill directs an average of 7.3 percent from the emissions auctions per year, with a maximum of $6.25 billion per year, to cities, metropolitan areas, and states to make advances in addressing the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector.

Placing new fees on gasoline and diesel fuels would raise the $6.25 billion per year. Oil companies would pay for the carbon emitted by the production and consumption of fuels, which the highway and road building lobby had no issues with when discussions suggested that the revenue generated from the fees would go into the Highway Trust Fund, which, with the majority of its revenue reserved for roads and highways, has from the Conference of Mayors point of view, in many ways, created an energy-intensive system dependent on automobiles.

Shortly after the release of the draft bill, highway groups issued statements opposing the revenue for the clean transportation investments (mainly because the new programs are outside of the Highway Trust Fund - this is a big deal as the clean transportation programs, including TIGER, shifts the way federal transportation dollars have historically flowed to the states - under the Highway Trust Fund, federal transportation dollars have traditionally been distributed to the state departments of transportation). The Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO), the trade group for state transportation departments in Washington, said, “The evidence is clear; Congress can ill afford to consider any legislation that preempts funding from the Highway Trust Fund.”

A coalition of transportation groups, including trade groups representing transit and highway, has said that they will lobby against the measure unless it is changed to provide more revenue to road and transit infrastructure. The actual amount to be raised by the fees is not known, however the amount is expected to be significant. The coalition letter to Senator Kerry and Senator Lieberman states, “Our preliminary analysis of the bill finds that tens of billions of dollars would be generated annually from new pollution fees on transportation motor fuels. In 2013, fees from on-road fuel consumption would generate at least $19.5 billion. Instead of returning revenue from these fees to improving the transportation system, the bill diverts at least 77 percent of the funds away from transportation infrastructure investment.”

Transportation modes consume more than two-thirds of our nation's oil supply and are responsible for nearly a third of our carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, the Conference of Mayors supports the funding for TIGER program, the grant program to metro areas and states to fund projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and resources for MPOs to implement new strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Speaking to the Conference of Mayors support for additional funding for the very popular TIGER program, which was established under ARRA, the U.S. Department of Transportation received over 1400 applications totaling almost $60 billion for the $1.5 billion TIGER program. In February, 51 awards were announced for projects ranging from a mix of rail, transit, highway, port, and multimodal projects. Transit projects received 26 percent of the funding, multimodal projects received 25 percent, highway projects received 23 percent, rail projects won 19 percent, and ports seven. Fifty-three percent of the funding went to local project sponsors - including cities, transit agencies and counties.

Unfortunately, the draft bill missed the opportunity to provided dedicated funding for high'speed intercity rail - which the Conference of Mayors would have strongly supported.

Mayors are in the forefront of the climate and energy debate and are urging the Congress and the Obama Administration to make our nation's transportation infrastructure more energy efficient, more environmentally sustainable and less reliant on foreign oil. The Conference of Mayors transportation policy is clear - federal transportation investments should address energy and climate concerns through reforms and programs that emphasize sustainable transportation investments.