EXCLUSIVE: Trump Transportation Department Alleviates ‘Green New Deal’ Program

FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—President Donald Trump’s Department of Transportation is moving away from the Biden administration’s climate justice initiative which made it harder and pricer to build buses.

Joe Biden’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, forced grant recipients of a $1.5 billion Federal Transit Administration grant program to build buses in accordance with low or no emission standards.

As a result, on Friday, Secretary of Transporation Sean Duffy will announce that his department will “consider” exceptions and expand options for grant recipients.

This lays the groundwork for the Trump administration to remove the low/no emission requirement at a later time.

“Both sides of the aisle are united against the Biden-Buttigieg Green New Deal Agenda that put American Energy LAST and burdened our transit partners with inefficient and expensive rules,” Duffy said in a statement. “I’m proud to provide our transit operators the flexibility to use all sources of American Energy to power our transit infrastructure and focus on building safe and reliable buses for American commuters.”

One of Trump’s first executive actions of his second term was issuing an order aiming at terminating the Green New Deal.

 “I terminated the ridiculous Green New Scam,” Trump said in his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4.

Duffy has heard complaints about the Biden requirements from both sides of the political aisle regarding limitations and challenges associated with zero-emission technology.

“The purpose of these grants is to help fund reliable mobility for Americans and meet public demand, not force ideology on American manufacturers and public transportation providers at the expense of the American people – they deserve transportation that works,”  said Federal Transit Administration Senior Advisor Marc Molinaro said in a press release. “FTA grant recipients asked for this flexibility and Secretary Duffy delivered.”

Grant recipients interested in making a zero-emission vehicle or zero-emission infrastructure project change request, or requesting reconsideration of a previously denied request, can contact their FTA Regional Office.

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