A steady stream of federal grant opportunities for sustainable communities has been released in the past month. To make sure no program is overlooked, EPA distributed a list (available below) of all current and upcoming funding opportunities for sustainable communities … 
On Tuesday, the White House will be answering questions on federal energy and climate change legislation, an issue with direct relevance for state and local sustainability. All are invited to participate online. From The White House Blog: On Tuesday, President …
Thanks to $10 million in grants now available from the EPA Climate Showcase Communities program, approximately 25 local and tribal communities will move one step closer toward a green, sustainable future. With grants ranging from $100,000 to $500,000, grant recipients …
Will California’s plans for reducing dangerous climate-changing emissions help or hinder the building and development market? California’s most prominent association of real estate developers answered that question emphatically last week, saying that California’s law requiring regions to reduce emissions through smarter land use, transportation, and housing decisions is good for business.
Senate Lawmakers Working on New Climate and Energy Bill
LEGISLATION EXPECTED TO BE INTRODUCED MID-APRIL
After months of meetings with congressional members, stakeholders and industry leaders, Senators John Kerry (D-MA) Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) have decided to wait to release their climate and energy bill for a few more weeks to ensure they have broad support for the proposal. Senator Kerry has indicated that the bill could be introduced the week of April 19, although any concrete timeline for its passage remains uncertain.
Smart Growth America coalition member TransForm has developed a certification program called GreenTRIP to encourage building the kinds of places we need to reduce our carbon emissions. The certification program rewards developers and municipalities that reduce traffic and greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. It acts as a complement to the LEED for Neighborhood Development program (LEED-ND), one that focuses specifically on the place transportation occupies in sustainable land use.
Washington, DC – The latest version of the Senate climate-protection bill put forth by U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, would provide significant resources and incentives to communities to plan and …
This is the latest edition of the Washington Update from Smart Growth America. The Washington Update is a typically policy-heavy newsletter covering federal policy developments here in Washington. If you want to know more about the details of policy and …
The National Academies recently released a report on driving and the built environment in which they concluded that increasing job and population density in city centers would benefit the environment by reducing vehicle travel, energy use, and CO2 emissions. (We reported on the release of that report a few weeks ago.) Two years ago, Smart Growth America and a number of other organizations collaborated on a report called Growing Cooler which similarly demonstrated the impact of our built environment on curbing climate change. However, Growing Cooler’s findings showed that the built environment’s impact on the environment was far greater than the conclusions of the National Academies’ report. Reid Ewing, Arthur C. Nelson, and Keith Bartholomew of the University of Utah’s Metropolitan Research Center (none of whom work for Smart Growth America) have issued a response to the authors of the National Academies report detailing how their original numbers remain more valid than the “moderate” findings of the new report.
The Transportation Research Board of the National Academies of Science yesterday released a Congress-commissioned report entitled, Driving and the Built Environment: The Effects of Compact Development on Motorized Travel, Energy Use and CO2 Emissions. The study by a panel of transportation …