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Committee advances bill narrowing MnDOT greenhouse-gas impact rules after technical briefing and hours of testimony
Summary
Lawmakers advanced House File 748 to the General Register after hearing a MnDOT presentation on the greenhouse-gas impact mitigation assessment, technical questions about methods and costs, and wide testimony from local officials, transportation groups and safety advocates.
The Minnesota House Transportation Committee on March 10 voted 8-7 to advance House File 748, a bill that would revise the statewide greenhouse-gas impact assessment that applies to trunk highway expansion projects, after a daylong presentation by Minnesota Department of Transportation officials and nearly two hours of public testimony.
MnDOT Assistant Commissioner John Solberg and Chris Behrens, MnDOT's greenhouse gas impact assessment program director, described the department's implementation of a 2023 law that requires greenhouse-gas (GHG) and vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) assessments for certain expansion projects — defined in statute as lane additions of 2,500 feet or more or new grade separations — and the technical advisory committee (TAC) formed to advise the agency.
Solberg said the assessment requirement took effect for projects beginning Feb. 2025, and that MnDOT has identified roughly three to six trunk-highway projects a year that would typically meet the expansion threshold. He told the committee the TAC has drafted assessment procedures and that MnDOT expects to publish the…
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