Memo: Electrifying America’s Public Transportation Systems - An Economic and Environmental Evaluation
Executive Summary
Greening America’s public transportation infrastructure is a vital component of tackling the climate crisis. These investments will create American jobs, raise American wages, and most importantly, save American lives – both today through improved health and lower air pollution, as well as tomorrow by reducing the odds of climate-change driven catastrophes.
One piece of proposed legislation undertaking these goals is the “Better Utilizing Investments to Leverage Development and Generate Renewable Energy for Electrification Now Act” – the BUILD GREEN Act. This proposed legislation would invest $500 billion over ten years in projects to electrify public transportation, install electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure nationwide, and expand associated renewable energy generation capacity.
This brief summarizes the results of a preliminary evaluation of some of the economic and environmental benefits of this transformation of the public transportation system.
