Green advocates in Maryland are pushing for a third straight session to get legislation across the finish line that would require the state to align its transportation priorities with its climate goals.
A coalition of nearly 50 environmental, transit and bike organizations is urging lawmakers to approve the Transportation and Climate Alignment Act, which the House passed in 2024, 2025 and again this year.
It has previously stalled in the Senate, but there is fresh hope among the bill’s supporters that this is the year. Time is short, as the General Assembly is scheduled to adjourn on April 13.
“This is definitely the most momentum the bill has had behind it in the Senate,” Del. Mark Edelson, a Democrat who is the prime sponsor of the House bill, told Pluribus News.
“We just need to keep pushing,” he added.
Similar laws are in place in Colorado and Minnesota. Bills have also been introduced in recent years in Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts and New York.
The Maryland bill targets future major highway projects that are designed to expand capacity and throughput.
As currently written, the bill would require Maryland’s Department of Transportation to include expanded transit or other transportation options as part of any big road expansion project. Those alternatives would have to be robust enough to offset the road project’s anticipated increase in greenhouse gas emissions.
Communities that are disproportionately impacted by a major highway project would get priority for the alternative modes of transportation.
Democratic Sen. Shelly Hettleman, the Senate sponsor, said Thursday that she has been meeting with her leadership and working on amendments with the goal of moving the bill out of committee in the coming days.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. … Our worst enemy right now is time,” she said.
Hettleman said the project-specific approach has raised concerns. Her amendments to the bill would instead take a statewide approach to climate mitigation and give the Department of Transportation more flexibility on the implementation timeline.
Edelson said he is willing to accept the Senate’s amendments.
Under the bill, the department would also have to evaluate all major capital projects for their impact on greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled, with the goal of ensuring that the state’s Consolidated Transportation Program meets the state’s climate goals.
Maryland has adopted policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2031, with the goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2045. But recent analysis indicates the state is not on track to meet those reductions. The transportation sector is the leading source of greenhouse gas emissions in Maryland and the United States.
Examples of climate-friendly improvements would include transit, transit-oriented development, roadway pricing and solar energy generation.
The Department of Transportation has said it supports the legislation with amendments.
Brian O’Malley, president and CEO of the Central Maryland Transportation Alliance, one of the groups advocating for the bill’s passage, said the new law would “make it more likely that we would consider alternatives, not just always widening highways.”
Another element of the proposed law would prohibit transportation planners from greenlighting a road expansion project unless they had determined the needs could not be met through improvements to highway maintenance and safety, modifications to the existing infrastructure, or the addition of more transit alternatives.
Edelson and O’Malley both pointed to Minnesota’s implementation of its law, including the state’s plan to upgrade a section of Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul without adding lanes. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is weighing several options for the 7.5-mile corridor, including improved bus service, managed toll lanes and safety upgrades.
Maryland’s proposed law has drawn opposition from roadbuilders and business groups.
The Maryland Transportation Builders and Materials Association has said the requirements would increase the cost of major road and bridge projects and delay congestion relief.
Maryland’s Chamber of Commerce has criticized the requirement to fund alternative modes of transportation in connection with highway projects as an unfunded mandate.
“When you’re adding new costs without new funding, we will likely see fewer projects invested in and Maryland’s transportation system is certainly currently under strain as it is,” Hannah Allen, the Chamber’s senior director of government affairs, told lawmakers in committee testimony earlier this year.
The Maryland Asphalt Association also opposes the bill.
Supporters counter that a climate-friendly approach to transportation spending would save Maryland money by forcing planners to consider alternatives to expensive road-widening projects.
The Clean Rides Network, which works across seven states, including Maryland, has estimated that an increase in transportation options could save the average American household $1,678 per year.
“Our transportation system at the moment is hurting, not helping the cost problem,” said Miguel Moravec, Clean Rides Network’s campaign manager.
“That’s why we’re seeing the dominoes fall and more and more states look to introduce this policy,” he added.