The infrastructure bill is historic in its scope. But it falls far short of Biden's original vision, which promised to dramatically reduce the climate impacts of transportation, the single largest source of pollution.
The Capitol Limited Amtrak train is pictured arriving in Washington, D.C. Under new infrastructure legislation, Amtrak would get $66 billion in new money, which could enable the rail line to build out its existing service.
Democrats did manage to bolster climate policies lacking in that bill with a reconciliation package that, at present, will add billions for transit and passenger rail, set new expectations for states to reduce carbon emissions and makes it easier for Americans to buy electric vehicles. But even combined, the two do not approach how Biden promised to move the nation toward carbon neutrality and zero emission vehicles soon after he took office.
“It will touch every single community,” said Adie Tomer, who leads the Metropolitan Infrastructure Initiative at Brookings. “It’s going to be bigger than the New Deal.”The infrastructure bill allocates $110 billion in new funding for roads and bridges, the large majority of which will run through long-established formulas that are funneled to state Departments of Transportation.
Some of those priorities made it into the current reconciliation bill, H.R. 5376 , however. A community climate incentive grant program, for instance, will force states to take steps to reduce carbon emissions and encourages cities to do the same. But Sean Jeans-Gail, vice president for the Rail Passengers Association, a passenger rail advocacy group, said while welcome, it won't be enough to create a true transformation in the country's passenger rail system.
He noted that given "these goals that we still have to decarbonize the transportation sector and to get as many people on to mass transit as possible ... we’d hoped for more.”
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