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One of the main problems in the transportation space is the disconnect in Blue states between elected officials climate goals and State DOT& #39;s interstate plans. 1/x https://twitter.com/KostelecPlan/status/1300442055534018561">https://twitter.com/KostelecP...
US Senate Democrats, including MA Senators, just released a climate plan that calls for a mode shift from roads to transit. And here MASSDOT is saying, nope they won& #39;t consider reducing the number of interstate lanes even though the community is specifically asking them too. 2/x
Likewise in New Jersey, NJDOT wants to spend billions of dollars further widening the NJ Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, which will exacerbate GHG& #39;s from transportation, even though Governor Murphy and Senators Booker and Menendez have called for addressing climate change 3/x
Environmental Groups like the NJ Sierra Club specifically asked Governor Murphy to veto NJDOT& #39;s plan since its inconsistent with the Governor& #39;s climate plans and he refused. 4/x
It& #39;s not any better in Connecticut where Governors Malloy/Lemont want to spend billions widening the Connecticut Turnpike (I-95) and I-84, money the State doesn& #39;t have, instead of going all in on rail and transit. 5/x
And in Oregon, ODOT has ignored repeated pleas from the Portland community not to widen I-5 even though Governor Kate Brown has long talked about addressed climate change and the State Legislature Democrats made a cap and trade system one of their priorities. 6/x
Point is, highway widening projects is a huge disconnect right now in the climate/transportation space. We need to rebrand highway widening projects as the new "coal plant" so elected officials understand the climate consequences of spending billions on new highway capacity. 7/7
