Area lawmakers are among a group pushing to halt construction of the InterCounty Connector highway project that is under way in Montgomery so the state can study how it will affect global warming.
Del. Dana Stein, D-Baltimore County, said the 18-mile toll road that would connect Interstate 270 in Montgomery with Interstate 95 in Prince George?s, is too expensive and could significantly increase the state?s greenhouse gas emissions.
The effort is the latest in years of attempts to kill or at least indefinitely postpone the controversial highway. But it appears to lack critical support among legislators, Montgomery leaders said.
Stein?s bill, which has 27 co-sponsors, would require the state to produce a report evaluating the highway?s effect on global warming and submit that report to the governor and the legislature by December.
While the study is being completed, no further work would be done on the project, which is in its second phase.
“Itwill generate 700 million miles of new driving in a year, in addition to the substantial sprawl which will result as well,” Stein said.
“We need to know how it will affect greenhouse gas emissions. More broadly from a transportation point of view, it is hugely expensive, and the funds that will be spent on this could be better used on mass transit or other highway projects throughout the state.”
State Sen. Rona Kramer, chairwoman of the Montgomery Senate delegation, said these claims have been made for decades.
“And the same people who have been opposed to the ICC … have signed on to support this bill. It?s not like there is a new group out there opposing it,” she said.
State transportation officials said the state has committed close to a billion dollars to contractors.
Greg Smith, a grassroots coordinator who opposes the ICC, said he thinks the state is “playing a game” with ICC funding.
“It?s like they want to spend as many tax dollars as quickly as possible to make sure the project is inevitable,” Smith said.
