Transportation

President Trump gave his first address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday, highlighting his legislative priorities for the coming year. His speech touched on issues ranging from the budget, infrastructure, and special interest influence in government.

This November’s election was packed with transit-focused ballot questions, and like in past years, investing in transit proved popular with voters. Overall, voters approved 34 of the 49 transit-related ballot measures worth a combined total $170 billion, marking the largest number of transit initiatives in an election in U.S. history. 

Here is a joint statement of U.S. PIRG and Environment America mourning the passing of Clarence M. Ditlow III, longtime director of the Center for Auto Safety, whose 40 years of advocacy has led to consumers driving safer cars that last longer and pollute less.

According to new data released last week by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the country set a new record for greatest one-month gasoline consumption this past June. The EIA found that the U.S. consumed an average of 9.7 million barrels of gasoline a day in June, resulting in approximately 86 thousand metric tons of carbon pollution. 

Earlier this week, the Obama administration issued the first in a series of three performance management measures designed to improve the nation’s transportation infrastructure system as required under the Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).