The public is invited to attend Rory Isbell's Master's Defense this Wednesday Nov.30, 10:00am in Hendricks Hall Room 100.

State Funding and Planning Mechanisms to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions from the Transportation Sector

Rory Isbell

Master of Community and Regional Planning, December 2016

Abstract

The transportation sector comprises one-third of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.  While the federal government regulates automobile fuel economy standards, efforts to reduce transportation sector greenhouse gases through transportation project funding and planning falls to the states.  Three states studied here (California, Washington, and Massachusetts) have statutory statewide greenhouse gas reduction goals, and goals to reduce transportation sector greenhouse gases either in statute or in the state long range transportation plan.  This project investigates these states’ funding, planning, and programming processes to discern the extent that greenhouse gas reduction goals influence those processes.  The states’ efforts are compared through both policy and legal analysis.  To ensure that transportation funding actively works to achieve greenhouse gas reduction goals, states should integrate greenhouse gas considerations in every state of the transportation programming process: funding, planning, programming, and performance measurement.  Additional recommendations to improve implementation of transportation sector greenhouse gas reductions include enacting strong statutory language, delegating authority and responsibility to achieve goals to state agencies, removal of funding constraints, and creating regional targets catered to metropolitan areas.