Concrete Products covers the issues that attract producers of ready mixed and manufactured concrete focusing on equipment and material technology, market development and management topics.
Issue link: http://concrete.epubxp.com/i/724035
8 • September 2016 www.concreteproducts.com GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS REGULATIONS The American Road & Transportation Builders Association has asked the Federal Highway Administration to withdraw a proposal to mea- sure greenhouse gas emissions from new transportation projects. The agency action is part of larger performance measures required under the 2012 Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century (MAP-21) surface transportation reauthorization law, and follows the White House's early-August release of "Final Guidance on Considering Cli- mate Change in Environmental Reviews" for federal agencies. The proposal "exceeds both the authority of the FHWA and the intent of MAP-21," contends ARTBA, which warned as much three years ago when it urged the U.S. Department of Transportation not to jeopardize broad, bipartisan congressional support for MAP-21 by including extraneous issues—such as climate change—in the law's implementation. A 2013 association task force urged federal author- ities to "focus on the goals enumerated in the law. The authors of MAP-21 had the opportunity to include a host of external goals such as livability, reduction of transportation-related greenhouse gas emis- sions, reduction of reliance on foreign oil, adaptation to the effects of climate change, public health, housing, land-use patterns and air quality in the planning and performance process. The U.S. Depart- ment of Transportation should focus on implementing the goals and standards as spelled out in MAP-21." ARTBA notes that neither Congress nor the Obama Administration sought emissions measurements in the MAP-21 performance man- agement process, and that such proposals were not included in the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act reauthorization law passed in December 2015. The association also raises a variety of concerns about the FHWA system, as the proposal "does not define what exactly it will measure and how it will measure it … [It] is unfair to ask the regulated community to provide specific comments on such an abstract proposal." Further, the association warns that the proposal could lead to "a cumbersome regulatory process that undercuts MAP-21 and FAST Act progress on expediting transportation project delivery." "It is hard to see this proposal as anything other than a maneuver to achieve a policy objective the administration failed to initiate during the MAP-21 and FAST Act deliberations," ARTBA concludes. WHITE HOUSE GUIDANCE National Ready Mixed Concrete Association Government Affairs staff noted how the final guidance expands the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for federal permits on road and bridge projects. NEPA mandates federal agencies review the impact a project may have through an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for all projects. The final guidance compounds the NEPA permitting process by including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in the eval- uating and quantifying process, notes NRMCA, adding that an EIS is very detailed and complicated to review, and can take years or even decades to complete. Lawmakers are concerned that the new guidance to require direct, indirect and cumulative climate impacts to quantify the impact to the environment—along with the EIS—will only further delay certain projects or eliminate them all together. "Final Guidance on Considering Climate Change in Environ- mental Reviews" was issued through the White House Council on White House guidance stands to hamper transportation project permits