Number: 1991-19
WHEREAS, our national transportation system has focused on our highways for the past 40 years; and
WHEREAS, the continued reliance of that transportation system on low occupancy, fossil-fueled automobiles threatens the viability of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems on a global scale due to its contribution to global warming, acid rain, energy consumption and toxic and solid waste; and
WHEREAS, motor vehicles are a leading cause of unhealthful air and, even in rural states like Vermont, air pollution is rapidly increasing as a serious threat to terrestrial and aquatic wildlife and a serious threat to human health; and
WHEREAS, this transportation system continues to damage the natural landscape by polluting and displacing valuable wetlands, wildlife habitats, agricultural and forest lands and historic settlements; and
WHEREAS, America’s visual environment is being despoiled by the proliferation of billboards, whose existence is, for all practical purposes, federally protected from local communities’ desire and action to control and remove unwanted billboards, and whose existence along America’s roadways is encouraged by federal law; and
WHEREAS, energy experts agree that future energy supplies will be even more costly than at present;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation in annual meeting assembled March 21-24, 1991, in Memphis, Tennessee, calls upon Congress to seize the opportunity during the reauthorization of the Surface Transportation Assistance Act to shift our national transportation policy away from the expansion and construction of highways, to a policy of maintenance of the road network while promoting and providing alternative modes of transportation; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to increase the integration of land use and transportation planning, focusing on both regional and Metropolitan Statistical Areas, to ensure greater protection of the natural landscape elements, especially its wetlands and other wildlife habitats; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to incorporate long-term, least-cost strategies as a condition of project and program financing and to give preference to transportation systems management techniques over increases in highway capacity; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to include in the 1991 Surface Transportation Act a ban on new billboard construction along Interstates and Federal Aid Primary Highways, an allowance for local communities the option to take down unwanted billboards using their own zoning authority, and a ban on the practice of destroying trees on federal right-of-way solely to make a billboard more visible; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to protect and expand requirements for environmental review and protection and for citizen participation in both transportation and land use planning and judicial review; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to enact the 1991 Motor Vehicle Fuel Efficiency Act (CAFE bill) to increase our national energy security and dramatically decrease the use of fossil fuels by requiring more fuel-efficient automobiles and light trucks; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the National Wildlife Federation calls upon Congress to bring the true costs of automobile use closer to the consumer (by raising the cost of gasoline and/or registration fees, and/or raising tolls and parking fees) while using the revenues generated to plan and provide for safe, more efficient transportation.