Local municipalities who are trying to incorporate green technologies into transportation construction and stormwater management plans deserve our support.  That’s why I introduced the Green Transportation Infrastructure Research and Technology Transfer Act, which passed the Committee on Science and Technology today.

Currently, some local officials are having a hard time obtaining approval to use green technologies because the EPA relies on data from specific projects, rather than overall technology performance in a variety of settings, to determine whether technologies effectively contribute to preventing water pollution.

For example, in 2000 and 2001, Portland, Oregon wanted to incorporate bioswales into its “Clean River Plan� for the Willamette River.  Bioswales allow soil and plants to filter pollutants before reaching ground and surface water sources.  However, an EPA regional administrator who was not familiar with research indicating that bioswales are effective said that the city also would have to have expensive and extensive permitting monitoring systems.  Due to the anticipated cost of the monitoring systems, the city was forced to rely on larger sewer pipes instead.

We need more research on green transportation infrastructure so that we can justify using green technologies and help solve substantial pollution problems in our communities.  This bill is a common sense step toward cleaning up our environment.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 28th, 2008 at 4:04 pm and is filed under Politics, Energy/Environment .