Lawyers for Good Government (L4GG) joined NRDC, Evergreen Action, and a broad group of 22 transportation, equity and environmental organizations to send a sharply worded letter to Federal Highway Administrator Shailen Bhatt on March 16, 2023 opposing the agency’s new guidance from February 2023 regarding state transportation spending.

In a policy document from December 2021, the Federal Highway Administration made clear that federal, state and local planning officials should focus on repair of existing roads and bridges instead of constructing new highways, and consider the equity and climate impacts of their spending decisions.

In an unfortunate retreat from that policy, the new guidance issued last month drops these basic, commonsense guideposts. By rescinding this guidance, DOT is allowing states to pursue spending on projects that will worsen carbon emissions and exacerbate the climate crisis, split communities, such as adding new lanes to highways or building new ones. The new guidance means states would not need to prioritize investing transportation funds in new projects that would decrease carbon emissions, such as those for transit, bicycles or pedestrians, or those that would prioritize projects benefiting communities hardest hit by climate change, such as Jackson, Mississippi or New Orleans, Louisiana. 

The new guidance fails to live up to President Biden’s executive orders that the federal government must advance equity and consider climate impacts in its actions. We urge the Federal Highway Administration to reconsider the rescinded guidance and implement infrastructure spending with climate and equity at the forefront. 

You can read L4GG’s original statement on the lifting of guidance here.