The American Public Transportation Association (APTA) is set to join the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) and two construction interests tomorrow in protesting the Senate climate bill’s proposed diversion of new fuel fees away from infrastructure — an argument that puts the transit industry’s leading D.C. lobbying group squarely in the transportation mainstream.

In a release previewing its joint press conference with AASHTO, scheduled for tomorrow morning, APTA said the Senate bill’s use of new fuel fees for purposes beyond infrastructure, such as paying down the federal deficit, "would harm efforts to pass
a new surface transportation bill and would also greatly impair the ability of
states, counties, cities and transit systems to reduce our dependence on foreign
oil and reduce transportation-related emissions."