[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 81 (Thursday, April 25, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 31796-31799]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-08915]


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DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

Federal Transit Administration

[Docket No.: FTA-2023-0006]


Notice of Availability of Programmatic Assessment of Greenhouse 
Gas Emissions From Transit Projects

AGENCY: Federal Transit Administration (FTA), Department of 
Transportation (DOT).

ACTION: Notice of availability.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the 
availability of a Programmatic Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions 
from Transit Projects (Programmatic Assessment). On September 25, 2023, 
FTA announced in the Federal Register the availability of the draft 
Programmatic Assessment and requested public comment. FTA received six 
comment letters and presents its responses to those comments in this 
notice.

DATES: The final Programmatic Assessment is effective immediately.

ADDRESSES: The final Programmatic Assessment will be made available in 
the U.S. Government's electronic docket site at https://www.regulations.gov/docket/FTA-2023-0006 and on the FTA website at 
https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-programs/environmental-programs/climate-considerations.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Megan Blum, Office of Environmental 
Programs, (202) 366-0463, [email protected], or Alexandra Brun, Office 
of Environmental Programs, (202) 366-7469, [email protected]; Mark 
Montgomery, Office of Chief Counsel, (202) 366-1017, 
[email protected]. Office hours are from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 
ET, Monday through Friday, except Federal holidays.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) requires Federal 
agencies to disclose and analyze the environmental effects of their 
proposed actions. In 2016, the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) 
issued the Final Guidance for Federal Departments and Agencies on 
Consideration of Greenhouse Gas Emissions and the Effects of Climate 
Change in National Environmental Policy Act Reviews (81 FR 51866) (2016 
CEQ guidance), which provided a framework for agencies to consider the 
effects of a proposed action on climate change, as indicated by its 
estimated GHG emissions and advised agencies to assess the effects of 
climate change on their proposed actions. The 2016 CEQ guidance also 
acknowledged that incorporation by reference is of great value in 
considering GHG emissions or the implications of climate change for the 
proposed action and its environmental effects. The 2016 CEQ guidance 
noted that an agency may decide that it would be useful and efficient 
to provide an aggregate analysis of GHG emissions or climate change 
effects in a programmatic analysis and then incorporate that analysis 
by reference into future NEPA reviews. FTA considers it practicable to 
assess the effects of GHG emissions and climate change for transit 
projects at a programmatic level, where possible.
    In January 2017, FTA published a Programmatic Assessment of 
Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Transit Projects (82 FR 5636) based on 
the 2016 CEQ guidance framework. In January 2023, CEQ issued the 
National Environmental Policy Act Guidance on Consideration of 
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Climate Change (88 FR 1196) (2023 CEQ 
guidance) to assist agencies in analyzing greenhouse gas (GHG) 
emissions and climate change effects of their proposed actions under 
NEPA. The 2023 CEQ guidance continues to support a programmatic 
approach for assessing GHG emissions from transit projects.
    The 2024 Programmatic Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from

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Transit Projects (Programmatic Assessment) updates and supersedes the 
2017 Programmatic Assessment in accordance with the 2023 CEQ guidance. 
The 2024 Programmatic Assessment is a NEPA streamlining tool that 
creates greater efficiency by: (1) reporting on whether certain types 
of proposed transit projects merit detailed analysis of their GHG 
emissions at the project-level; and (2) providing a source of data and 
analysis for FTA and its project sponsors to reference in future 
environmental documents for projects where detailed, project-level GHG 
analysis would provide only limited information beyond what is 
collected and considered in the Programmatic Assessment. The 
Programmatic Assessment is intended to update and supersede FTA's 
January 2017 Programmatic Assessment of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from 
Transit Projects (82 FR 5636).
    The Programmatic Assessment presents results from an analysis to 
estimate direct and indirect GHG emissions generated from the 
construction, operations, and maintenance phases for a sample of bus 
rapid transit, streetcar rail, light rail, commuter rail, and heavy 
rail projects, as well as an estimate of personal vehicle emissions 
displaced due to transit's ``ridership effect.'' Emissions estimates 
were calculated using FTA's Transit Greenhouse Gas Estimator (GHG 
Estimator), version 3.0 (https://www.transit.dot.gov/regulations-and-guidance/environmental-programs/ftas-transit-greenhouse-gas-emissions-estimator), which is an Excel-based tool that allows users to calculate 
partial lifecycle GHG emissions estimates by transit mode based on 
limited data inputs. The 2023 CEQ guidance also indicates that project 
proponents should place potential GHG emissions and their impacts in 
appropriate context. In order to provide additional context for the GHG 
estimates included in the Programmatic Assessment, the net social 
benefits of reduced operational emissions resulting from each transit 
project in the sample were estimated.
    The Programmatic Assessment provides a reference for FTA and its 
project sponsors to use in future NEPA documents to describe the 
effects of proposed transit investments on partial lifecycle GHG 
emissions. The Programmatic Assessment's results can inform transit 
project proponents who are considering the GHG emissions of future 
transit investments or who might independently want to evaluate the GHG 
emissions benefits and cost of such investments.

Comments Received

    On September 25, 2023, FTA announced in the Federal Register the 
availability of the draft Programmatic Assessment and requested public 
comment. As of the date of issuance of this notice of availability, FTA 
considered all comments received in the docket. FTA received comments 
from one transit agency, two state Departments of Transportation (DOT), 
one trade association, one nonprofit organization, and one member of 
the public. This notice discusses the comments FTA received, organized 
here by topic, and provides FTA's responses to those comments.
    Comment: One state DOT commented that the Programmatic Assessment 
does not include GHG emissions associated with the induced VMT that can 
occur if new highway capacity is constructed in lieu of transit.
    Response: The Programmatic Assessment is intended to serve as a 
NEPA streamlining tool for transit projects. FTA is not attempting to 
quantify GHG emissions for highway projects, nor is the Programmatic 
Assessment aiming to compare potential transit projects to potential 
highway projects. Furthermore, highway capacity projects are not 
usually considered reasonable alternatives to proposed transit projects 
during the environmental review (the stage in which a transit agency 
would be expected to refer to the Programmatic Assessment).
    Comment: A state DOT asserted the sample size of transit projects 
used in the analysis could lead to unreliable results.
    Response: FTA first stresses that the use of the Programmatic 
Assessment (or the GHG Estimator) as a reference and NEPA streamlining 
tool is entirely voluntary. FTA also notes that the sample of transit 
projects analyzed in the Programmatic Assessment included 68 transit 
projects that applied for funding through the 49 U.S.C. 5309 Capital 
Investment Grants (CIG) Program. This represents an increase of 32 
transit projects as compared to the sample used in the 2017 
Programmatic Assessment (36 transit projects). FTA believes the sample 
relied upon is representative of transit project types that will seek 
FTA funding and, consequently, require compliance with NEPA. In cases 
in which a proposed project's characteristics and assumptions are 
similar to the sample, FTA recommends that transit agencies considering 
bus rapid transit, streetcar, light rail, and commuter rail projects 
incorporate the Programmatic Assessment by reference into their NEPA 
analyses.
    Comment: A state DOT questioned the use of forecasts of automobile 
VMT reductions as the metric by which transit operations and GHG 
emissions be measured, pointing out that ratios of displaced automobile 
VMT to transit VMT in the Programmatic Assessment ranged from 1:1 to 
48:1.
    Response: FTA acknowledges there are other metrics by which transit 
operations can be measured. The results presented in the Programmatic 
Assessment rely on an analysis that uses GHG emissions per VMT as the 
metric to evaluate vehicle operations. Other metrics, such as emissions 
per revenue vehicle hour, which measures operational efficiency, and 
emissions per passenger- or seat-mile, which takes service productivity 
into account, offer useful benchmarks. The Programmatic Assessment does 
recast results to account for passenger loads for each transit mode. 
Those results suggested that even during times of lower than usual 
transit ridership, all transit modes can be expected to result in net 
annual GHG emissions reductions when considering GHG emissions on a 
per-passenger basis. Adding further information is inconsistent with 
the information transit agencies provide in CIG templates--the primary 
data source for the transit project sample. Additionally, the 
methodology used in the Programmatic Assessment is optional and may be 
tailored to a specific transit project. FTA notes that Appendix B 
offers characteristics for each individual project in the sample of 
transit projects referred to for the assessment. FTA also reiterates 
the Programmatic Assessment's point that the ratios that the comment 
identified were all for the sample heavy rail projects. Given the 
limited number of projects within that heavy rail sample and the wide 
variation in the estimated GHG emissions across it, the Programmatic 
Assessment recommends that FTA's GHG Estimator or another locally 
recommended approach be used to make project-specific GHG emissions 
estimates in NEPA analyses for heavy rail projects.
    Comment: A state DOT stated that findings for transit projects 
other than large-scale, fixed-guideway projects are not included.
    Response: FTA clarifies that the Programmatic Assessment examines 
the GHG impacts of project types included in CIG templates. The 
analysis presented is intended to be a voluntary NEPA streamlining 
tool, providing a source of data and analysis for FTA and its project 
sponsors to reference in

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future environmental documents for projects where detailed, project-
level GHG analysis would provide only limited information beyond what 
is collected and considered in the Programmatic Assessment.
    Comment: A state DOT asserted that region-based electricity factors 
should be used.
    Response: The Programmatic Assessment methodology relies on the 
best available data and tools to estimate the GHG emissions associated 
with transit projects. In the Programmatic Assessment, the emissions 
factors associated with electrically powered vehicles use the ``U.S. 
Mix'' region from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 
eGRID2020, which represents an average value for the country. FTA 
acknowledges here and in the Programmatic Assessment that the ``U.S. 
Mix'' may differ from region-specific factors. For regions with cleaner 
electricity generation mixes than the U.S. Mix, this approach will 
overestimate emissions for electrically powered vehicles. Likewise, 
this approach will underestimate emissions for the same in regions 
where electricity production is less clean than the U.S. Mix. Figure 4-
2 in the Programmatic Assessment illustrates the differences in the GHG 
emissions associated with an example light rail project across 
different eGRID subregions. Appendix A in the Programmatic Assessment 
includes the eGRID sub-region electricity emission factors; these 
factors are incorporated in the Programmatic Assessment's accompanying 
Estimator Tool. Transit agencies can replicate the methodology that the 
Programmatic Assessment establishes using locally available data sets, 
if they choose to do so.
    Comment: One state DOT requested additional clarification about the 
sample projects.
    Response: FTA developed the Programmatic Assessment to provide 
transit agencies with an analysis of the effects of GHG emissions for 
certain types of projects that they can reference in future 
environmental review documents to meet NEPA requirements without 
necessitating a project-specific evaluation for that impact area. The 
sample of transit projects analyzed in the Programmatic Assessment 
included 68 transit projects that applied for funding through the CIG 
Program. Specific characteristics of those projects are in Appendix B 
of the Programmatic Assessment. Additional information regarding CIG 
projects is available in annual reports to Congress that FTA is 
required by law to prepare (https://www.transit.dot.gov/funding/grant-programs/capital-investments/annual-report-funding-recommendations).
    Comment: One state DOT recommended that more details be provided to 
explain the differences in results included in the draft Programmatic 
Assessment relative to the results reported in the superseded 2017 
Programmatic Assessment.
    Response: For construction GHG emissions data, the 2017 
Programmatic Assessment relied on the Infrastructure Carbon Estimator 
version 1 (ICE v1). A second version of that tool, ICE v2, was 
developed in the interim between the 2017 Programmatic Assessment and 
the current Programmatic Assessment. The current Programmatic 
Assessment relied on ICE v2. Construction GHG emission rates included 
in ICE v2 are higher than those in ICE v1 due to the use of higher 
quality data and modeling. Furthermore, for bus rapid transit projects 
specifically, FTA reduced the period over which GHG emissions were 
amortized from 50 years to 40 years to reflect minimum useful 
lifespans, per FTA Circular 5010.1E, more accurately. These changes 
result in GHG emissions estimates that appear higher in the current 
Programmatic Assessment than in the 2017 Programmatic Assessment. FTA 
will note the ICE versioning differences in a footnote in the 
Programmatic Assessment and clarify the minimum useful lifespan figure 
used for bus rapid transit.
    Comment: One state DOT recommended additional factors be considered 
when applying the GHG calculation methodology to the no action 
alternatives in Appendix C.
    Response: The 2023 CEQ guidance suggests that NEPA reviews identify 
the current and projected future state of the affected environment 
without the proposed action (i.e., the no action alternative), which 
serves as the baseline for considering the effects of the proposed 
action and its reasonable alternatives. In the context of the 
Programmatic Assessment, the effects of the no action alternative are 
represented by the GHG emissions from automobile use that is expected 
to occur in the absence of the transit project (i.e., automobile VMT 
displaced in the action alternative). Other than displaced automobile 
VMT, data on other aspects of the no action alternative, such as 
displaced GHG emissions from road maintenance and construction, were 
not included. Use of the Programmatic Assessment by transit agencies is 
voluntary; transit agencies that want to develop more holistic 
estimates of GHG emissions for a project-specific no action alternative 
may opt to do so.
    Comment: One nonprofit organization: (1) requested additional 
clarification on when project-specific analysis is required; and (2) 
recommended that FTA work with the Federal Highway Administration 
(FHWA) to conduct programmatic GHG-related emissions evaluations during 
the long-range transportation planning process.
    Response: FTA reiterates its recommendation that in cases in which 
the project characteristics and assumptions are similar to the sample 
of analyzed projects, transit agencies considering bus rapid transit, 
streetcar, light rail, and commuter rail projects may incorporate the 
Programmatic Assessment by reference into their NEPA analyses. In these 
cases, no additional project-specific GHG emissions analyses would be 
necessary for purposes of NEPA. Use of the Programmatic Assessment is 
voluntary, and transit agencies may choose to conduct their own GHG 
emissions analyses if they determine the Programmatic Assessment does 
not meet their project needs. FTA will evaluate the Programmatic 
Assessment and the accompanying Estimator, as appropriate, to provide 
better estimates of GHG emissions for transit projects. The Estimator 
is available for transit agencies that wish to have a more tailored 
estimate of emissions or for which a project differs substantially from 
those used to create the Programmatic Assessment.
    On the second general point, during development of the 2017 
Programmatic Assessment FTA worked with FHWA to discuss approaches to 
considering GHG emissions consistent with the 2016 CEQ guidance. FTA 
will continue to explore best practices for considering GHG emissions 
at other stages during transportation project development, including 
long-range transportation planning.
    Comment: One trade association suggested that FTA exclude 
maintenance projects from requirements for GHG assessments.
    Response: FTA notes that use of Programmatic Assessment as a 
reference and NEPA streamlining tool is entirely voluntary. The 
Programmatic Assessment does not introduce any new requirements. 
Rather, the Programmatic Assessment recommends that NEPA reviews for 
new individual light rail, street car, bus rapid transit, and commuter 
rail projects incorporate by reference the analysis of construction-
related, operations-related, and maintenance-related upstream and 
downstream GHG emissions in cases in which the project characteristics 
and

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assumptions are similar to the sample projects analyzed The 
Programmatic Assessment does not consider emissions from or provide 
recommendations for projects that maintain existing systems.
    Comment: One trade association suggested that FTA recognize the 
critical influence of transit on energy-efficient community design.
    Response: FTA revised the Programmatic Assessment to further 
highlight energy-efficient community design as a benefit of transit. 
The report notes that transit enables denser, more energy-efficient 
land use patterns that keep GHG emissions low through fewer and/or 
shorter driving trips, more trips on foot or by bicycle, and a 
reduction in car ownership and use.
    Authority: 42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.; 40 CFR 1507.3; 49 CFR 1.81(a)(5) 
and 1.91(c).

Mark Ferroni,
Acting Associate Administrator for Planning and Environment.
[FR Doc. 2024-08915 Filed 4-24-24; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4910-57-P