FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 13, 2020

CONTACT: 
Jana Plat
jplat@businessfwd.org
(202) 861-1270

Washington, DC — Today, Business Forward Foundation released a report on the Transportation and Climate Initiative, a cap and invest program for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic designed to reduce pollution from the transportation sector, which currently accounts for 43% of the region’s carbon emissions.

What Cap and Invest Could Mean for Transportation Infrastructure in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic explains how the program would work and the impact it could have on the region’s transportation infrastructure over the next decade.

More than 100 investors, companies, and institutions across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic signed a letter encouraging the program’s adoption: “We are a diverse group of organizations and businesses united by the extraordinary opportunity to modernize and decarbonize our region’s transportation system… The existing transportation system is a roadblock to our economic and our climate goals. We feel an urgency to create a transportation future that enables economic growth and substantial decarbonization.”

By 2032, annual proceeds could reach $6.9 billion. These dollars would go toward improving mass transit, supporting electric vehicles, and making commuting safer, faster, and more reliable. Improvements in clean transportation could include 44,000 electric transit buses, $5.6 billion invested in bike lanes and sidewalks, and 84,000 electric trucks. Analysis by public health experts estimates that TCI could avoid as many as 4,700 childhood asthma cases and 1,100 premature deaths over the next decade.

 

ABOUT BUSINESS FORWARD FOUNDATION

The Business Forward Foundation is an independent research and education organization that takes a business-minded look at policy issues affecting America’s economic competitiveness. Our work combines insights and advice from business leaders across the country with rigorous policy analysis. Through white papers, issue briefs, conference calls, and other events, we educate policy makers and the public about climate change, immigration reform, infrastructure investment, the future of work, and other critical issues.