With the backdrop of sun-splashed blue waters, federal and local officials gathered at the 28th annual Lake Tahoe Summit, where they focused on transportation challenges in the age of climate change.
Secretary Buttigieg said communities like those at Lake Tahoe, a high-elevation area with delicate ecosystems, need infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather.
鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a lot of places where what used to be considered a hundred-year flood is now almost an annual event,鈥� Buttigieg said. 鈥淪o, we can鈥檛 just be instructing communities to put your road back just the way it was if it鈥檚 getting washed out every other year.鈥�
Buttigieg said the U.S. Department of Transportation is $7 billion on projects across the country that address climate impacts.
鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 a new evacuation route, sometimes it鈥檚 moving a road higher in the face of sea-level change, sometimes it鈥檚 making a key supply chain more resilient to the risk of wildfires,鈥� Buttigieg said. 鈥淭he specific prescription will vary from place to place, but the common pattern is we need to recognize that good infrastructure in the 21st century has to weigh climate considerations that were not on anybody鈥檚 mind in the 20th.鈥�
Buttigieg said that鈥檚 why the department is also working to reduce greenhouse gas emissions coming from transportation, which the largest portion of America鈥檚 emissions (28%), according to federal data.
He pointed out that the agency is billions of dollars in electric vehicles and charging stations across the U.S. Federal funds are also flowing to communities to help take cars off the road, he noted. At Lake Tahoe, for example, is going toward improving and extending a walking and biking trail along the lake鈥檚 eastern shore.
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