Transit Industry to Join State DOTs in Blasting Senate Climate Bill

The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is set to join
the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials
(AASHTO) and two construction interests tomorrow in protesting the
Senate climate bill’s proposed diversion of new fuel fees away from
infrastructure — an argument that puts the transit industry’s leading
D.C. lobbying group squarely in the transportation mainstream.

In
a release previewing its joint press conference with AASHTO, scheduled
for this morning, APTA said the Senate bill’s use of new fuel fees
for purposes beyond infrastructure, such as paying down the federal
deficit, “would harm efforts to pass
a new surface transportation bill and would also greatly impair the
ability of
states, counties, cities and transit systems to reduce our dependence
on foreign
oil and reduce transportation-related emissions.”