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All Documents in Smart Growth Tagged transportation

Communities Tackle Global Warming
A Guide to California’s Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act (SB 375)
Issue Paper

California's Sustainable Communities and Climate Protection Act, or SB 375, is the nation's first legislation to link transportation and land use planning with global warming. SB 375 is an important step toward a cleaner, healthier, and more prosperous California. Locating housing closer to jobs and transportation choices and creating walkable communities can reduce commute times and cut millions of tons of global warming pollution, while improving quality of life.

Documents Tagged transportation in All Sections

Moving Cooler
Securing America's Energy Future
Fact Sheet

America currently uses nearly 20 million barrels of oil per day--enough to fill more than six of the world’s largest supertankers. More than two-thirds of this oil is used to fuel our cars and trucks, which drive enough miles each day to circle the globe more than 331,000 times. Meeting this demand for oil makes America less secure. We rely on imports for more than 60 percent of our overall oil consumption, leaving us dangerously dependent on other nations. Meanwhile, our oil-fueled transportation system accounts for nearly a third of our total global warming pollution. Technology advancements such as hybrid vehicles and better batteries can decrease our oil use and transportation emissions, but groundbreaking new research sponsored by NRDC and leading transportation experts shows that we must deploy additional strategies to overcome this challenge. Get document in pdf.

Clean, Low-Emission, Affordable, New Transportation Efficiency Act (CLEAN-TEA)
H.R. 1329 can reduce emissions from transportation
Legislative Analysis

The transportation sector is the second-largest and fastest-growing contributor to global warming pollution in the United States, in large part due to steadily rising number of miles that cars and trucks travel each year. Despite some stagnation in the last year because of the economy, driving—or the vehicle miles traveled (VMT) rate—has grown by three times the rate of population growth over the past 15 years and is expected to grow by 40 percent by 2030, largely because we’ve designed the vast majority of our communities in ways that give people no other option but to drive everywhere. While there has been a federal focus on increasing fuel economy of vehicles and decreasing carbon content in fuels, these strategies alone will not be enough to slow and reverse overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the transportation sector. The number of miles that vehicles travel is the critical, but often forgotten, “third leg” of the transportation stool. Get document in pdf.

Congressional Testimony of Deron Lovaas, Vehicles Campaign Director: Future Federal Role for Surface Transportation
Testimony

In this testimony, delivered before the Senator Environment and Public Works Committee, Lovaas discusses the role of the federal government in determining transportation policy. With high gas prices at the pump affecting families across the country, he offers an in-depth analysis of policy prescriptions to lessen our addiction to oil, and create a more economically and environmentally sustainable transportation sector.

For additional policy documents, see the NRDC Document Bank.