As the LA Times put it, the idea doesn't pass muster.
It's inappropriate and, frankly, cynical for the Republicans to suggest that this money be used on projects that not only won't reduce emissions but seem likely to increase them.
And even better:
For the most part, road building . . . can encourage sprawl and more driving by at least temporarily reducing congestion. There is some evidence that smoother roads increase gas mileage, but so far it's unclear whether road repair is an effective way to reduce carbon emissions. One way in which transportation projects might validly be funded by cap-and-trade money: the creation of bicycle- and pedestrian-friendly streets.
Hurray for the Times editorial board for understanding that connection!
However, one thing the board doesn't seem to understand is the relationship between building affordable housing near transit and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The editorial calls the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities program a "dubious" use of cap-and-trade funds. Streetsblog would like to recommend they check out the excellent work done by TransForm, a coalition of advocates that has studied this issue for a long time. TransForm published a report in 2014 that showed that
Lower income households drive 25-30 percent fewer miles when living within 1/2 mile of transit than those living in [non-transit-oriented housing]. When living within ... 1/4 mile of frequent transit they drove nearly 50 percent less.
Higher income households drive more than twice as many miles and own more than twice as many vehicles as extremely low-income households living within 1/4 mile of frequent transit. This underscores why it is critical to ensure that low-income families can live within 1/4 mile of transit.
In other words, putting lower-income households near transit can allow those households most likely to reduce their driving to do so. Higher-income households are also demanding condos and apartments near transit, and there is plenty of new development throughout the state attesting to that. But low-income housing is harder to finance and therefore needs encouragement and incentives. Cap-and-trade money is an appropriate way to support affordable housing, because:
using conservative assumptions, TransForm and the California Housing Partnership calculated that investing ten percent of cap-and-trade proceeds in [California's Department of Housing and Community Development Transit-Oriented Development Housing program] for the three years of FY 2015/16 through FY 2017/18 would result in 15,000 units that would remove 105,000,000 miles of vehicle travel per year from our roads.
Streetsblog California editor Melanie Curry has been thinking about transportation, and how to improve conditions for bicyclists, since her early days commuting by bike to UCLA long ago. She was Managing Editor at the East Bay Express, and edited Access Magazine for the University of California Transportation Center. She also earned her Masters in City Planning from UC Berkeley.
Metro staff are recommending the board approve funds to support two 91 Freeway expansion projects located in pollution-burdened communities in Southeast L.A. County - in the cities of Long Beach, Artesia, and Cerritos