GREEN Streets Act Mandates Climate Goals for Roads; Penalizes States That Don't Cut Driving and Emissions

The Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National Streets Act—or the GREEN Streets Act—is a major shakeup for how states handle federal transportation money. Simply put, this bill forces states to prioritize climate change and transit over building new highway lanes. It updates federal road performance measures, adding mandatory goals aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions and, crucially, decreasing the average miles people drive per person (per capita vehicle miles traveled, or VMT). The Secretary of Transportation now has the power to set the minimum standards for these goals, and states must update their plans within a year of those rules dropping (SEC. 2).

The Highway Expansion Headache

If you live in a growing metro area, you know the cycle: traffic gets bad, so the state proposes adding a lane. This bill makes that process significantly harder. Any project that uses federal funds to increase traffic capacity—like adding a new lane or converting a shoulder—is now a “covered project” and faces new hurdles, especially if it costs over $25 million (SEC. 3). Before a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) or a state can move forward with adding capacity for single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs), they must publish a detailed analysis showing the project’s impact on VMT, greenhouse gas emissions, and non-car trips. They also have to prove that the project is more cost-effective than alternatives, such as improving public transit or optimizing existing road operations. Essentially, if your local transit agency can make a stronger case for a new bus route than the state can for a new highway lane, the highway lane might not get built.

The Environmental Justice Checkpoint

Another major change is the explicit focus on environmental justice (EJ) communities. The bill defines an EJ community as one with high concentrations of low-income, minority, or Tribal populations already facing environmental or health risks. For any covered project, the planning analysis must now specifically check the impact on air pollution and other environmental metrics within these communities using federal screening tools (SEC. 3). This means that projects that might disproportionately increase pollution in these neighborhoods—like a highway expansion near an existing low-income area—will face intense scrutiny and must be justified publicly before approval.

The Mandatory Spending Penalty

This is where the rubber meets the road for state budgets. If a state fails to meet the minimum federal performance targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its public roads, it faces a mandatory spending requirement the following year (SEC. 4). The state must redirect 33% of its main federal highway funding (section 104(b)(1) funds) and 10% of another chunk of funds toward projects specifically designed to hit those emission targets. And if the state keeps missing the targets, that 33% penalty increases by 2% every year. This is a big deal: it’s a direct financial lever forcing states to shift money away from their traditional highway priorities—potentially even maintenance—and into transit, bike lanes, land use planning, or efforts to lower transit fares. The penalty only stops once the state proves it has met the required minimum emission standards.

Transit and Accessibility Get a Boost

Beyond emissions, the bill significantly elevates transit accessibility. For large metro areas (over 250,000 people), the Secretary must establish national standards and measures for things like “first last mile accessibility” (how you get from your house to the bus stop), “transit accessibility” (how much you can reach—jobs, doctors, schools—within a 45-minute trip), and “transit mode share” (the percentage of trips taken by transit) (SEC. 5). Covered entities must then set targets for these metrics and report on their progress. This means local planners will be federally required to think beyond just running the bus on time and focus on making sure the bus stop is actually reachable via a safe sidewalk or bike path, potentially leading to more investment in sidewalks and crosswalks near transit hubs.