The 2014 CLRP performance assessment makes clear that while COG’s regional climate goal is to reduce emissions 80% by 2050 below 2005 levels, that the list of regional transportation projects, if built, will cause emissions to rise rather than fall. We have on our hands a Transportation Emissions Gap – a major discrepancy between our goals, and our regional plans. Our question is, how can we work together to close that gap now? Because transportation decision take so long to implement, getting started now is critical to make the changes needed.
Category: Climate change & energy
Testimony to the TPB re Climate Change and the CLRP Update
Over the past three years and particularly since last summer, the TPB has asked the staff to review CLRP updates for conformance with the goals of Region Forward, the COG Climate Report, Access for All, and the Regional Transportation Priorities Plan. The COG staff, elected officials and a wide range of stakeholders have committed significant time and resources into developing these plans and associated goals.
Letter to TPB Regarding the 2014 CLRP Update
Dear Chairman Wojahn and Members of the Transportation Planning Board:
Please accept the following comments on the draft 2014 update to the Constrained Long Range Plan (CLRP). The Coalition for Smarter Growth (CSG) urges the Transportation Planning Board (TPB) to fundamentally reevaluate the entire Constrained Long Range Plan this year in order to meet the Council of Governments’ (COG) own goals, including addressing climate change and meeting ever-stricter air quality standards for human health. This reevaluation should include the ability to remove projects which do not support your goals, including allowing for shifting funds to transit and the internal connectivity needs of the mixed-use, walkable and transit-oriented activity centers to which you have committed.
DC region’s new long-range plan fail to meet its own climate goals
If sea levels rise just one foot in the Washington, DC, area, nearly 1,700 homes could be lost. Is the region’s transportation planning agency doing enough to stop that from happening? Several environmental and smart-growth organizations in the region are saying no. Seventeen groups have signed on to a letter, being delivered today, urging the agency to take action. The comment period on the agency’s latest long-range transportation plan closes tomorrow.
The Constrained Long Range Plan update must address regional climate change goals
The undersigned organizations call on the National Capital Transportation Planning Board (TPB) to commit to full disclosure of the forecasted climate change impact of the 2014 Constrained Long Range Plan (CLRP), and to take action to align the CLRP with the region’s climate change goals. One of the most important national and
multi-national public policy issues of our time, climate change must be tackled by every city, county, region, state, and nation. Given that our region has already adopted important goals, it is past time to begin implementing them.
Principles Linking Smart Growth & Stormwater
eams that feed it. Stormwater runoff from farms and development gouges out streams and pours pollutants such as farm and lawn fertilizers, livestock waste, and oil and gasoline from cars and trucks into the very water we drink and depend on for food and recreation. As our communities have spread out and our daily activities have become increasingly separated and car-dependent, we have consumed thousands of acres of forest and farm land for parking lots, roads and highways to accommodate our vehicles. This explosive increase in land consumption for paved or impervious surface has exacerbated and continues to exacerbate the stormwater runoff problem throughout the Chesapeake region.
Restoring Streams, Revitalizing Communities Along the Richmond Highway Corridor
Revitalizing Richmond Highway with mixed-use walkable development, while linking revitalization, stream restoration, and better stormwater management – priceless! These interconnected issues were featured at our community forum, co-sponsored by the Friends of Dyke Marsh, Lee District Association of Civic Organizations, and Audubon Naturalist Society.
Green Power Platform
Building Healthy and Vibrant Communities in Prince George’s County is a comprehensive blueprint to improve the environment and economy in Prince George’s County and to secure environmental justice for all of our residents. Policy recommendations are provided for energy conservation, renewable energy, waste management, land use, transportation, green business, sustainable agriculture and water/natural resources.
Cool Communities
When you think cool communities, you might think of vibrant neighborhoods with great streets and parks, coffee shops, bars and restaurants, a variety of stores and other activities. But these communities also offer the opportunity to help reduce the warming of our climate, while reducing oil consumption and transportation costs. Where we build and how we build our neighborhoods will make a real difference.
Ward 3 Vision Sustainability Working Paper
The DC Office of Planning is leading a Ward 3 Neighborhood Sustainability Indicators Pilot Project (the Sustainability Project). We joined with Ward 3 Vision to put together a working paper on sustainability.