Five years after New York passed its landmark 2020 climate law, the state Department of Transportation is quietly undermining it as it expands highways, sidestep emissions reviews, and ignores the law\u2019s equity mandate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act<\/a> requires steep cuts to emissions and protections of vulnerable communities, but the DOT is failing on both fronts, according to a report<\/a> from New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.<\/p>\n DOT’s “threadbare” approach \u2014 basically posting a two-page summary of the law itself without taking any action to implement it \u2014 “is a transparent attempt to simply check a box,” the report states.<\/p>\n The transportation sector is now responsible for over one-third of New York\u2019s yearly emissions<\/a>, yet the DOT is forging ahead with at least 40 expensive and environmentally ill-advised highway-widening projects. These will add to the state\u2019s already ballooned total driving miles, polluting the atmosphere and increasing rates of asthma<\/a>.<\/p>\n The continued focus on highways defies not only the climate law, but common sense, said Caroline Chen, director of Environmental Justice at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s folly to think that we\u2019re going to build highways and at the same time be able to reduce vehicle traffic,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need to highlight that the trend has to stop and to take climate change seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n It is well established that expanding roads doesn\u2019t fix traffic<\/a> because the expansion itself induces more drivers to use the newly widened road<\/a>. It\u2019s a never-ending cycle of traffic, driving up statewide emissions. If it was its own country, New York State would rank as the world\u2019s 29th-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, according to the report. New Yorkers drive more than 120 billion miles<\/a> per year, emitting so much CO2 that it would take a forest twice the size of New York State to absorb all of it (though even such a large forest would do nothing to eliminate congestion or road violence, two other victims of car culture).<\/p>\n The state must shift transportation planning to meet the climate crisis, but the DOT\u2019s five-year capital program<\/a>, north of $30 billion, outlines its car-centric priorities, said state Sen. Andrew Gounardes (D-Bay Ridge).<\/p>\n There\u2019s “no hard commitment and no level of seriousness that this undertaking requires,\u201d he said. \u201cThis should be an all-hands-on-deck moment for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Gounardes has introduced<\/a> legislation to cut the state\u2019s total annual vehicle miles by 20 percent by 2050. The bill would mandate that any new highway expansion project be assessed by its net change in the amount of total miles driven statewide. If the reduction isn\u2019t sufficient, the law would require the plan to change or to include mitigation efforts \u2014 like building public transit, and developing pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure.<\/p>\n Instead, Gounardes said he wants to see transportation dollars used on projects that “reduce our reliance on cars” and “incentivize the use of public transit.”<\/p>\n