Traffic Law Reform Fuels Debate Over Air Quality

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, March 18, 2003 (ENS) - Transportation groups took to Capitol Hill last week to convince Congress that laws to reduce traffic congestion and improve air quality are misguided and are not working to aggressively further either goal.

They found sympathy from many senators, who agree that both the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program and the Transportation Conformity program are in dire need of reform.

Updating these laws could dramatically improve traffic flows without compromising air quality, American Highway Users president Diane Steed told the Senate Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate Change and Nuclear Safety. Steed believes states need greater flexibility to use the funds for a wider array of traffic congestion improvement projects.

But environmentalists and some Democrats are far from convinced.

"The results of this approach would be to turn back the clock to the days when highway builders could ignore pollution limits with impunity," testified Michael Replogle, transportation director for Environmental Defense, a national advocacy group based in New York City.

Traffic congestion has a direct impact on air quality. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy FreeFoto.com)

The Department of Transportation estimates the cost of traffic congestion is $72 billion annually in terms of hours of lost time and wasted fuel.

And traffic congestion poses serious environmental hazards. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), vehicles account for 62 percent of U.S. carbon monoxide emissions, more than 50 percent of smog forming nitrogen oxide emissions and some 25 percent of fine particle soot.

Vehicles are the leading source of carbon dioxide emissions, the most abundant heat trapping greenhouse gas responsible for global warming.

The Transportation Conformity program is part of the Clean Air Act Amendments and it requires that state transportation plans conform to National Ambient Air Quality Standards set by the Clean Air Act.

The EPA estimates that 51 million Americans live in 77 counties that violate the current one hour ozone ambient air quality standard, and 11.1 million people live in 17 counties that do not meet the current standard for particulate matter.

These standards are set to be tightened within the next few years, and this will result in nearly double the number of counties out of compliance. Congress has already extended the implementation deadline by one year, and transportation lobbyists seek a further extension and urge the program be overhauled.

Freeways crisscross Cincinnati, Ohio (Photo courtesy Cincinnati-Transit)

"The mismatch in the timeframes for transportation and air quality plans has placed an undue burden on the on-road mobile sector where there are very few measures remaining that can be implemented that will yield significant emissions reductions," explained Maryland Department of Transportation official Marsha Kaiser, testifying on behalf of the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.

"This is especially true as vehicles continue to get cleaner and federal controls on vehicles are phased in," Kaiser said. "This has caused problems for transportation agencies in making conformity determinations, which is a criterion for receiving federal highway and transit funding."

Kaiser contends the conformity determination should be required on the first 10 years of the transportation plan or to the attainment date, whichever is the longer time period.

On Monday, Texas Republican Representative Kevin Brady introduced a bill to restore a "sensible approach" to the transportation conformity provisions of the Clean Air Act.

Brady's bill would grandfather transportation construction projects that have been stopped when an area has fallen out of compliance with air quality standards, allowing the projects to proceed while the region develops an air quality plan.

Environmentalists, as well as state air pollution program administrators, believe the current structure is weighted on the side of public health and should continue to do so.

Smog in New York City (Photo courtesy New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation)

Liebe testified on behalf of two organizations, the State and Territorial Air Pollution Program Administrators and the Association of Local Air Pollution Control Officials.

The effectiveness of the Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality program is under scrutiny as the administration prepares its request for reauthorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) and the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA).

The administration will be submitting its proposals "soon" said Emil Frankel, assistant secretary for transportation policy.

The Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ) program was created under ISTEA in 1992 and has received a total of $14 billion in funding from TEA-21 and ISTEA authorizations.

Both sides of the debate call for increased funding, but disagree over how these funds should be allocated and how the program should be reformed.

The program was designed to fund transportation projects that reduce emissions in non-attainment and maintenance areas, as well as to fund projects that slow the growth of congestion, reduce emissions, and maintain economically viable and mobile communities.

CMAQ funding is doled out to the states by means of a formula that takes into account the severity of air quality problems and the size of affected populations. The states are required to spend the money in non-attainment areas and maintenance areas.

But Steed of the American Highway Users says there are "serious flaws" in the CMAQ program.

Her organization supports expanding CMAQ funding to areas out of existing non-attainment and maintenance areas and says that far too much of CMAQ funding is dedicated to measures designed to encourage reduction of miles traveled.

"These measures are the carrots and sticks advocated by some anti-car, anti-motorist planners and groups who believe that government should be in the business of forcing people out of their cars," Steed said.

Steed believes the money is better spent on traffic flow improvements, diesel engine retrofits and vehicle inspection and maintenance programs. Cars are getting cleaner, Steed says, and the link between increased driving and increased pollution is not what it once was.

A key reform Steed proposes is repeal of the CMAQ provision that prohibits funding of projects that increase capacity for single occupant vehicles.

Traffic congestion increases every year in the United States. (Photo by Ian Britton courtesy FreeFoto.com)

Environmentalists and state pollution officials want increased funds under CMAQ to help regions deal with fine particulates and air toxics in addition to ozone and carbon monoxide. More money will be needed as a result of the new EPA air quality standards, as there will be more areas in nonattainment.

Liebe warned against supporting traffic congestion solutions that could have the long term effect of promoting additional driving and urban sprawl.

This hits at the core of what several senators called a very tricky issue - how to balance the short term desire to ease traffic congestion with the need to ensure air quality does not suffer over the long term.

"There is no doubt that coordinating these two policy areas and disciplines is complicated," said Senator James Jeffords of Vermont, an Independent. "But, our CMAQ investments and conformity have encouraged smarter growth, better land use decisions, and provided air quality benefits.

"We should continue moving aggressively along this same path," Jeffords said. "If we do not, even tomorrow's cleaner vehicles could swamp our efforts to achieve cleaner air as their numbers grow and they travel ever farther."