Big Dig, Big Pollution?

As the Big Dig project began in 1990, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) made a deal with the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation to ensure that the construction efforts complied with the national Clear Air Act: "The logic was simple: provide more, and more convenient, public transportation, and more people will leave their air-fouling cars at home." Now it's 2006, and the MBTA has not lived up to its part of the bargain, increasing controversy. But is the focus on public transit missing the point?

"Of course, all of these deliberations take for granted the fact that the best way to decrease pollution is through public-transit projects. But in fact, some suggest that such an assumption may be foolhardy. Train-transit projects, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars and achieve modest air-quality benefits, might be less effective than pushing for higher vehicle-emission standards, better fuel efficiency, and various other clean-energy goals."