Cutting Off Vital Infrastructure Funding Will Hurt Efforts to Improve California’s Infrastructure and Air Quality; Construction Association Urges Federal Officials to Give State a Grace Period
The Associated General Contractors of America called on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to delay cutting highway funds to California as state officials work to update and finalize its air quality plans. Association officials noted that cutting off funding for highway improvements in the state will undermine the primary objective of the Clean Air Act.
“Using federal highway funding as a cudgel is counterproductive to the Administration’s promise to deliver on infrastructure and the environment,” said Jimmy Christianson, the association’s vice president of government relations, in a letter to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler. “We urge the agency to work with California on air quality and to provide a grace period sufficient to allow the state to update and finalize its plans.”