The Texas Department of Transportation plans to spend about half a billion federal dollars on projects that the agency says will lessen the amount of climate-warming carbon dioxide emitted into the air.

Harrison Humphreys, a research and policy coordinator at Air Alliance Houston, an environmental advocacy group, said he sees the strategy as doing “the bare minimum” to get the federal dollars and called the document “disappointing.”

It’s just one piece of the billions of dollars flowing to Texas from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which was passed in 2021 and is funding a range of projects, from clean water to high-speed internet.

California’s version of the same document says plainly, “To achieve carbon neutrality, Californians need to drive less.” In Florida, another populous Republican-controlled state, the plan acknowledges that emissions contribute to “environmental changes” including “rising temperatures, heavy rainfall, and extreme weather events.”

Adam Greenfield, board president of Rethink35, a group opposing an I-35 expansion in Austin, called congestion reduction a “stealth way” to continue focusing on expanding highways and other state roads.

Disclosure: Air Alliance Houston has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors.

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