Press Release of Senator Cardin

CARDIN CALLS FOR GREATER INVESTMENT IN TRANSIT TO CREATE GREEN JOBS AND LEAD TO ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

Transit is a proven solution that is already working.

Contact: Sue Walitsky: 202-224-4524
Thursday, October 29, 2009

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Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Benjamin L. Cardin (D-MD), a member of both the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee, released the following statement today during the legislative hearing on S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009.

“Our transportation and energy infrastructure systems are simultaneously at a crossroads. This is no coincidence; they are connected to each other by what drives them both – fossil fuels. The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act of 2009, makes the investments needed in clean fuels, clean vehicles and improving transportation efficiency that will drive the clean energy economy.

“The transportation sector is responsible for 30 percent of America’s greenhouse gas emissions and uses 70 percent of our oil consumption. . That is why it is imperative we shift away from fossil fuels to power vehicles. We must diversify our transportation power sources to include ethanol refined from algae, switch grass and other sources of biomass – sources that do not have a direct effect on consumer food prices. Sweeping improvements in efficiency and pollution reduction to our nation’s transportation systems are just as visionary as President Eisenhower’s concept of a national infrastructure system, and is equally attainable.

“The Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Actprovides significant investments in the domestic production of Clean Vehicles, as well as transit. We get millions of tons of greenhouse gas reductions today from our existing mass transit programs. According to the American Public Transportation Association, public transit currently saves 37 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year. If we could double the number of mass transportation customers in the United States, our reliance on foreign oil could decline by more than 40%, or nearly the amount of oil we import from Saudi Arabia each year. Transit is a proven solution that is already working and this bill will make sure that progress is accelerated.”