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Environment and Sustainability Task Force:

Transportation, Energy Policy and Global Warming Issues Working Group

Overview of Policy on Transportation, Energy Policy and Global Warming Issues

The United States needs to take into account the realities of the 21st century, including the imminent decline of fossil fuel production, the increasingly alarming indicators of human-induced global warming, and the degree to which our country lags behind the rest of the world on promoting responsible and efficient use of resources. PDA supports shifting governmental resources away from the current aggressive promotion of private vehicles and toward efficient and convenient public transportation, toward pedestrian and bicycle amenities, and toward smart growth strategies that locate housing developments at transportation nodes and provide basic services within walking distance of homes. We also support the development of high-speed rail lines between metropolitan areas to reduce our dependence on fuel-intensive air travel. These measures would not only reduce fossil fuel use, they would reduce costs in maintaining and building of roads, they would benefit public health through reduced emissions and increased physical activity, and they would promote greater freedom of motion among the young, the elderly, the poor, and the disabled who cannot participate in our automobile culture.

We support the development of energy sources other than fossil fuel and natural gas. We support the regulation of the energy industry to promote full-cost accounting for the wastes and toxins, including a mandate to fully inform the public. We support the full participation of the United States in multi-national efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollutants. We support partnerships between the government and private industry to implement sustainable practices that will reduce emissions and industrial waste.

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Policy Position Papers

(No papers available at this time. Drafts are in progress)

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What You Can Do

Our task force recommends the following actions for individuals and groups. Follow the links for tips, tools, and suggestions.

• (Individual) Plant trees or purchase carbon offsets to compensate for the global warming effects of air travel and other lifestyle choices.
• (Individual) Join the NRDC Re-Energize America Campaign to harness American ingenuity to find alternative energy solutions
• (Group) Start a Cricial Mass bike ride in your community. All around the world, bicyclists are taking to the streets for monthly group rides through urban streets, celebrating cycling and asserting the rights of cyclists to share the road. There are no leaders as such, but you can be instrumental in organizing a local event.

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Educational and Action Resources

Apollo Alliance: Good Jobs, Clean Energy.

Alex Kirby, BBC News Online: "Climate change: Uncharted waters?"

Victoria Transport Policy Institute: "Efficient Vehicles Versus Efficient Transportation"

Surface Transportation Policy Project: "Transportation and Social Equity" -- report showing the way current transportation policy discriminates against the poor, the elderly, people with disabilities, children, women and rural residents

Informative web sites:

Union of Concerned Scientists – global warming

Union of Concerned Scientists – renewable energy

National Resources Defense Council Global Warming page

BBC Science and Nature Page: There are a number of resources here

National Geographic Fact Sheet on global warming. Excellent overview with other links provided at site

Victoria Transport Policy Institute

Sustainable transportation: US Dept. of Energy Smart Communities Network

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In the News

Jeff Greenwald, "How to fly the guilt-free skies." NRDC On Earth, Winter, 2005.

Climate Change: The Heat is On. Nature, Dec. 2, 2004. A series of articles detailing the evvidence for human-induced global climate change and its costs and consequences.

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