Governor Gretchen Whitmer told a U.S. Senate committee Wednesday that the country needs a national strategy to tackle failing infrastructure and climate change.
The governor told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that climate change poses a double threat.
“The health of our economy is inextricably linked to the health of our people and our planet.”
Whitmer did not offer a specific plan but asked federal lawmakers to adopt a green infrastructure initiative that would rival the US interstate highways system authorized by Congress 65 years ago. That would include a network of charging stations for electric vehicles.
The last increase in the federal gas tax was 1993, and Michigan’s legislative Republicans have thwarted Whitmer’s efforts to increase the state gas tax to pay for infrastructure.