Regulators Shift Focus To Greenhouse Gas Emissions From Transportation Sector

On April 22, 2016, the Federal Highway Administration ("FHWA") published a proposed rule that would require states and localities to evaluate and report on transportation system performance, including travel time reliability, delay hours, peak-hour congestion, and freight movement. In addition, reductions in criteria pollutants resulting from federally funded projects would need to be estimated and reported. The proposed rule also contemplates addressing greenhouse gas ("GHG") emissions from the transportation sector, which has been identified as the second-highest GHG source category, accounting for 26 percent of total U.S. GHG emissions.

The proposed rule invites comment on whether FHWA should establish a performance measure to address GHG emissions. The agency is considering how GHG emissions could be estimated and used to inform planning and programming decisions, and to reduce long-term emissions. FHWA proposes that GHG emissions would be best measured as the