What may seem like an oxymoron to some — the highway construction and the U.S. transportation industry steadily revitalizing the environment — is actually a fact, according to the American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA). The association is now forcefully disseminating what it calls a major “untold story.”
In a new publication “Transportation and the Environment: The Untold Story,” the association asserts that “the transportation sector is responsible for most of the improvement in the U.S. environment that has been achieved over the past 30 years.”
The publication cites a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) October 1999, report, “Indicators of the Environmental Impacts of Transportation,” which it says shows dramatic declines in motor vehicle emissions, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds (VOC’s), and particulate matter, since 1970, but ARTBA adds:
“These are facts rarely heard. The federal government does little to publicize them. Most legislators and news reporters are unaware of them. So is the American public. It is with knowledge of this public ignorance, however, that many regulators and activists continue to routinely target transportation improvement projects as major environmental ’problems.’”
While citing EPA statistics, ARTBA says EPA itself is a major reason why the facts on emissions declines aren’t widely known.
“The Federal Government has done little to publicize the EPA report,” ARTBA Spokesperson Matt Jeanneret told Construction Equipment Guide. “I don’t think the folks at EPA are interested in informing people about transportation development and the transportation construction industry’s contributions to improving the environment.”
Jeanneret said, “The Untold Story” is in heavy demand.
“This is a hot publication,” he told CEG. “We’ve had requests for thousands so far and we’ve sent it to governors, state DOTs, chambers of commerce and our state chapters, which use it as ammunition to respond to lawsuits which impact transportation. We will roll it [the story] out big-time in September.”
According to the ARTBA publication, one reason for attacking road improvement projects is the “Not is My Back Yard” (NIMBY) reaction. It adds, however:
“The other reason [for attacking] is darker. Groups like the Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, the National Resources Defense Council and their allies are waging an ideological war on the American public’s freedom to choose how they travel and where they live and work. These groups hold the elitist view that they know what is best for American society.”
Jeanneret said ARTBA has formed a Strategic Litigation Alliance to help fight suits by environmental groups in Atlanta, GA; Baltimore, MD; and other locations. He said member organizations from throughout the industry have contributed funds for ASET (Advocates for Safe and Efficient Transportation) which includes professional legal experts to decide on litigation strategy.
“The Untold Story” says EPA’s 1999 report shows carbon monoxide down 45 percent since 1970, VOCs down 60 percent, particulate matter down 47 percent, nitrogen oxides down five percent, and lead eliminated.
“The report’s data show nearly 80 percent of the hazardous air pollutants released nationwide today come from non-transportation sources. These facts are even more remarkable given that over this period, the U.S. population has grown 30 percent, the number of licensed vehicles is up 87 percent and vehicle miles traveled have increased more than 125 percent.”
ARTBA President Pete Ruane said the report “is going to surprise a lot of people. The facts about transportation and the environment just don’t back up the view of the world that no-growth advocates continue to feed the media, government officials and the general public.”
Kathy Milbourne, a spokesperson for EPA’s clean air program in Washington, D.C., told CEG: “It depends on the pollutants you look at. There have been significant reductions in pollution from mobile sources, like automobiles, over the past 30 years, but a lot of work needs to be done for trucks and buses not currently regulated.”
Milbourne pointed out that a major EPA regulation to reduce the sulfur content in diesel fuel by 97 percent is “still in the proposal stage.”
“The public comment stage concluded Aug. 14 and we hope to have the regulation finalized by the end of this year,” she added. The regulation would take effect for diesel fuel in 2006. EPA says reducing the sulfur content “is the clean air equivalent of removing from the air the pollution generated by 13 million of today’s trucks.”
The Clinton Administration announced last December that a new “Tier 2” tailpipe emission standard, to be phased in between 2004 and 2007, will subject sport utility vehicles (SUVs) and other light-duty trucks — even the largest passenger vehicles — to the same national pollution standards as cars. This tailpipe standard is thus 0.07 grams per mile for nitrogen oxides for all classes of passenger vehicles. The heaviest light-duty trucks will be able to meet the standard in a three-step approach concluding in 2008 and 2009.
“Motor vehicles generate about 30 percent of all emissions of nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds — the pollution that causes smog,” EPA said. The agency also announced a gradually tighter standard for sulfur content in gasoline, culminating in a standard for refineries, in 2007, of 30 parts per million (ppm) average sulphur levels with a maximum cap of 80 ppm.
“The Untold Story” says “the transportation construction industry actively supports” the new Tier 2 standards which it says “will also have major, positive impacts on air quality without reducing the mobility of the American public.”
“According to the EPA, these two developments alone could reduce NOx [nitrogen oxide] emissions by nearly 800,000 tons per year by 2007, 1.2 million tons by 2010, and 2.5 million tons by 2020 — despite increased auto usage,” the publication says.
The “Untold Story” also says the federal highway program is creating two acres of wetlands for every acre lost, and that new highway capacity has only increased 6 percent over the past 30 years. And it adds that “the U.S. transportation construction industry recycles pavement materials at a higher rate (more than 80 percent) than the recycling of aluminum cans (60 percent), newsprint (57 percent), plastic soft drink bottles (37 percent), glass beverage bottles (31 percent), and magazines (23 percent).
The publication says that “The biggest improvements in future air quality could be achieved by getting serious about reducing overall emissions from non-transportation sources. In the 21st Century.” It adds, the nation needs a “dynamic transportation network to meet the needs of a growing population and economy.”
The network, ARTBA says, includes adding road capacity where appropriate and desired by the majority of local citizens, improving local management of traffic incidents to clear roadways quickly, increased utilization of synchronized traffic signals and other “smart road” technologies to increase traffic flow, and improving public transportation systems, including bus, vanpool, car pool and demand-response networks that handle 64 percent of all public transit trips in America.
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