Court Rules Roads Must Comply With Clean Air Plans

The Court struck down a rule allowing planned highway projects to be guaranteed future funding many years in advance of construction even if the transportation plan for the metropolitan area no longer meets Clean Air Act requirements when construction funds are to be spent. The Act requires cities with harmful pollution levels to adopt 20-year transportation plans that will achieve regional limits on emissions from motor vehicles adopted in a state’s air pollution control plan. This decision will insure that federal funds may only be spent on highway projects that do not interfere with a metropolitan area’s pollution cleanup plan.

“This Court ruling protects the public from highway projects that will contribute excess pollution in areas that violate national air quality standards,” said Michael Replogle, EDF’s federal transportation director. “Road project sponsors will need to demonstrate that their projects comply with state air quality plans, and do not promote sprawl and development that worsens air pollution and transportation equity problems. As a result of the decision, highway funds may be committed to a project only if the area’s transportation plan meets air quality requirements when the project is ready to begin construction, and not many years in advance. This will encourage transportation agencies to pay more attention to the effects of their plans and avoid the mistakes of Atlanta, where authorities approved over $700 million in road projects after it was known that the projects would add to excess pollution levels. Tuesday’s decision would require Atlanta to change its transportation plan to cut air pollution before spending more on highway projects. These funds should be used immediately to alleviate the harmful effects of past transportation investments on communities and to boost job access for low income workers.”

The ruling is likely to affect “grandfathered” road projects in other regions where plans are not in compliance with federal Clean Air Act requirements. These areas include Charlotte (NC), Northwest Indiana, Boise (ID), Kent County (DE), Monterey and Santa Barbara (CA), Ft. Collins (CO), Albuquerque (NM), Billings (MT), Medford (OR), Northern New Jersey, and Puerto Rico. The DC Circuit ruling would mean these plans must be revised to shift funds to projects that will contribute to reducing pollution.

“When Congress enacted these provisions of the Clean Air Act in 1990, it sought to insure that billions in US transportation funding would not add to air pollution while other government agencies were requiring emission reductions to protect public health,” said Robert Yuhnke, EDF’s attorney in the case. “This ruling helps assure transportation funds will be part of the solution in seriously polluted metropolitan areas, not part of the problem.”

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