How big asphalt won over climate in infrastructure bill, and how Republicans are exploiting i
The New York Times provides a deep dive into how the status quo and some serious greenwashing by an outgrowth of the fossil fuel industry—big asphalt—shaped the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) last year. A very big part of the sale job the industry did on Congress was convincing members that asphalt is green, a key material in fighting climate change.
“We are America’s No. 1 most recycled product,” Jay Hansen, the executive vice president for advocacy at the National Asphalt Pavement Association, told the Times. That’s the message they sent all the way back in December 2020 to then-President-elect Joe Biden in a 20-page policy paper. “Our industry is committed to working with you and building environmentally-friendly, sustainable, and resilient pavement infrastructure that is the foundation for America’s economic prosperity,” the trade group said in their letter to the transition.
They were thrilled with the response. Lobbyist Martin T. Whitmer Jr. recalled how advisers to the Biden transition team were swayed. “They didn’t know about asphalt being the most recycled product,” he said. Whitmer pushed that message in his lobbying with lawmakers, too, in casual meetings he set up in a park near the Capitol during the summer. He brought lawn chairs to hang out on and chunks of asphalt for members to see, and he arranged for lawmakers to have field trips to processing plants.
It worked.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/2/21/2081485/-How-big-asphalt-won-over-climate-in-infrastructure-bill-and-how-Republicans-are-exploiting-it?pm_campaign=blog&pm_medium=rss&pm_source=main
