Last week, before heading out for their July 4 break, Congress passed a two-year transportation bill that was the product of months of negotiations between the Senate and House or Representatives.  While the Senate was thankfully able to keep unrelated, anti-environmental riders out of the final bill (namely permitting the Keystone XL pipeline, and pre-empting EPA safeguards on toxic coal ash), the transportation bill that was passed was a step backwards from the Senate version that held so much promise. This was a missed opportunity  to move our transportation policy into the 21st century.

Going into the conference committee, the Senate brought a two-year bill that would take steps to reduce our dependence on oil by making biking and walking safer, giving local officials more control over transportation funding, extending transit commuter benefits, and revamping our planning process to be more performance-based.

The House, unable to pass their disastrous transportation proposal, instead came to conference with a 30-day extension of current transportation law and three anti-environmental riders – gutting our nation's environmental review process, pre-empting EPA safeguards on coal ash, and permitting the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline.

To give credit where credit is due, the final bill ...

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Compass is a Sierra Club Blog, " Pointing the way to a clean energy future."