Today, the U.S. Senate voted to overturn a key Biden administration climate rule aimed at reducing transportation emissions in states and localities across the country. Issued last year, the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Greenhouse Gas Performance Measure requires state transportation agencies to set greenhouse gas reduction targets. Transportation currently accounts for an outsized percentage of climate pollution, in some instances accounting for over half of a state’s total greenhouse gas emissions. 

In response, Evergreen Action State Program Director Justin Balik released the following statement: 

“Today’s move by climate deniers in the Senate GOP is incredibly disappointing and threatens to block a commonsense federal tool for tackling greenhouse gas pollution in our transportation sector. We can’t fix what we don’t measure. This rule simply requires states to measure the greenhouse gas impacts of their transportation decisions, and most have long been prepared to implement it. If this measure is overturned, we would lose an essential transparency standard to track dangerous climate pollution and a vital tool to hold states accountable for spending tax-payer dollars in ways that accelerate the climate crisis. With record levels of flexible federal transportation funding, a cleaner, more equitable transportation future is possible. President Biden should veto this Trumpian effort to bury necessary climate data without delay.”