Governor Moore is the lone decider of the future of Larry Hogan’s toll lane plan. Our new Governor has one smart option and a lot of bad ones.
Moore campaigned to leave no one behind, to be a champion of equity and environmental justice. He aims to make Maryland a national leader on climate action. If he rightly chooses to cancel the toll lane scheme in favor of multiple better alternatives, the wave of benefits he sets in motion will resonate far beyond his time in office.
For now, unfortunately, he shows signs of going in the wrong direction. But that can and must change.
The governor recently spoke of “people who have business models that are intended to separate us because [those people] benefit…” A perfect way to describe the inequitable toll lane plan.
He also recently said of the public, “That’s where my power comes from, the people.” Well, the people don’t want infrastructure that benefits only the wealthy and condemns everyone else to more congestion and less safety. The people don’t want a backward-looking highway project to further degrade the environment.
How do we hold our Governor to his worthy promises?
We keep taking action: We push our elected officials to speak the truth to and about Moore if he continues down Hogan’s path. We make our voices and opinions heard, and we never let up. See the Action Items below.
We follow and support the lawsuit making its way through U.S. District Court of Maryland. See the update below.
Gov. Wes Moore; The Washington Post, 8/1/23
Action Item #1
The Moore Administration is asking what we think of their ambitious goal to set “a national and global example for how a state can go all-in on climate action.”
Let’s tell them! ASAP, please complete the Administration’s 2-question survey. Explain, in as much or as little detail as you like, that the Moore Administration will never achieve its goal if they move ahead with Larry Hogan’s toll lane scheme.
For inspiration, see what the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a plaintiff in the lawsuit challenging the toll lane plan (see update below), says: “By bringing more cars onto these highways and creating new traffic bottlenecks, this project would worsen deadly air pollution, especially for nearby environmental justice communities. The state failed to account for the threats this project poses.”
• Click here to access and complete the State’s short environmental survey.
• For more about the Administration’s goals, see Maryland’s Climate Pathway. This new document fails to mention the toll lane project or the resulting increases in vehicle miles traveled, greenhouse gas emissions, and more.
• See the Sierra Club-led technical and legal comments on the project’s environmental flaws here.
Action Item #2: Watch for It
Check your inbox in the coming days and weeks for quick outreach tools we’ll forward from our trusted coalition partners. Use the tools to tell Montgomery County Councilmembers – because they must be proactive on this issue – to carry our message to Governor Moore: the public says no to Hogan’s inequitable, ineffective, climate-destroying toll lane project.
Lawsuit Update
The lawsuit challenging the toll lane plan is moving ahead in federal district court.
On June 16, 2023, the Sierra Club, NRDC, and historic preservation groups “filed a motion for summary judgement…which asks the judge to decide the case in their favor without going to trial.”
By August 7, 2023, “MDOT and [the Federal Highway Administration] plan to file a response and cross-motion for summary judgment…according to the court-ordered schedule…”
NRDC’s statement on the lawsuit says, “In its haste to try and get this harmful project started, the Hogan administration cut corners and ignored legally required steps. The new administration of Gov. Wes Moore now has the opportunity to conduct the robust and just environmental review that the law requires.”
But according to MDOT, its “Managed Lanes Study fully complied with all federal requirements in the environmental review process…”
We may soon learn more about Governor Moore’s pending decision: to take ownership of his predecessor’s very bad plan, or to work toward equitable, environmentally sound transportation that benefits all.
If the latter, wonderful. If the former, we won’t let up.