Environmental organizations support Southwest LRT

Transportation and environmental organizations including Transit for Livable Communities, Sierra Club Northstar Chapter, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, Fresh Energy, and the Alliance for Sustainability jointly drafted and submitted a letter to Mayor Hodges and Minneapolis City Council members, urging the city to support Southwest LRT. The deadline for cities along the line to consent to the current alignment is in mid-July.

Here is the letter submitted to the Mayor and City Council:

Excerpt:

We, the signatories to this letter, urge you to support the metropolitan region’s
next transit line, Southwest Light Rail (SW LRT). We call on you to consent to
the SW LRT project as the critical next step in expanding transit in Minnesota
because of the positive impacts it will have on our environment. Southwest
LRT will help reduce emissions and improve air quality, preserve open space
and habitat, and protect water quality.

The City of Minneapolis has set a goal, as approved in its Climate Action
Plan, of achieving a 15% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2015
and a 30% reduction by 2025. Transportation generates 25% of greenhouse
gas emissions in Minnesota with themajority of those emissions coming
from cars and light trucks. The Climate Action Plan, recognizing that
transportation is one of the largest contributors to Minneapolis’s green
house gas footprint, targets the sector for 16% of projected emissions
savings and a per capita reduction in vehicle miles travelled (VMT).
The Plan specifically calls for the City to support, “the build‐out and
upgrade of regional and local transit lines.”