This bill expands and modifies Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) programs, including the Surface Transportation Block Grant (STBG) program, to provide states reimbursement, incentives, and technical assistance to purchase low-emissions cement, concrete, asphalt binder, or asphalt mixtures. Under the bill, these are products that reduce, to the maximum extent practicable, greenhouse gas or directly related pollutant emissions to levels below the commercially available products.
Specifically, the FHWA must provide to states
reimbursement for the additional cost of using low-emissions cement, concrete, asphalt binder, and asphalt mixtures used in state highway projects;
incentives for the acquisition of these products for use in state highway projects;
technical assistance to update the state's specifications and standards to be performance-based specifications and standards; and
technical assistance to benchmark and quantify embodied greenhouse gas emissions (i.e., emissions associated with the production and transportation of goods).
The FHWA must leverage the Every Day Counts Initiative to promote the commercialization of low-emissions cement, concrete, asphalt binder, and asphalt mixtures.
The FHWA must establish and maintain a publicly available directory of state-submitted low-emissions products that the FHWA determines to be eligible for reimbursement or incentives.
Further, the bill modifies the STBG program to allow states to issue advance purchase commitments for cement, concrete, asphalt binder, or asphalt mixtures (1) with superior durability and performance to conventional materials, or (2) that achieve superior performance with respect to environmental performance or energy efficiency. The bill allows for multi-year contracts, under specific conditions.
