Written Testimony of Sierra Club DC Chapter
to the
DC Council Committee of the Whole
Public Roundtable for
PR24-0089, “Board of Directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority
Lucinda Babers Appointment Resolution of 2021”
Submitted April 19, 2021
Dear Chairman Mendelson:
The Sierra Club DC Chapter appreciates the opportunity to submit written testimony on PR24-0089 - Board of Directors of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) Lucinda Babers Appointment Resolution of 2021. The Sierra Club is the nation’s oldest and largest environmental advocacy group. We are a grassroots organization with chapters in every state, DC, and Puerto Rico. In DC, we have 3,000 dues-paying members and more than 10,000 supporters. We advocate for equitable transportation and for meaningful solutions to the climate crisis. This includes advocating for more rail and bus service, especially into underserved neighborhoods, and for public transit agencies like WMATA to shift away from using fossil fuel buses and towards zero-emissions vehicles instead.
We are writing to testify in support of the resolution to appoint Deputy Mayor Babers as a principal member of the Board of Directors of WMATA. Thank you, Chairman Mendelson, for moving forward her nomination at this critical time for WMATA and the District of Columbia. Following Jeff Marootian’s appointment to the Biden administration, the WMATA Board has been left with no representative from the District government. WMATA continues to face a significant shortfall of ridership and revenue due to the pandemic, forcing the Board to make difficult and long-lasting decisions. Given the extent to which the District relies on WMATA, it is critical that the District is fully represented in these decisions.
We were impressed with Ms. Babers at the public roundtable on April 7th and believe she will be an effective representative for the District. In her role as the Deputy Mayor of Operations and Infrastructure (DMOI), she is uniquely positioned to liaise and ensure alignment between WMATA and the District government, particularly the agencies overseeing transit and the environment: District Department of Transportation (DDOT) and Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE). These agencies are working hard to advance the District’s climate goals, but these goals are simply unachievable without WMATA. It is imperative that WMATA maintain and progressively expand rail and bus service and move with urgency to electrify the more than 1,500 buses in its fleet.
With regards to this last point, we wholeheartedly agree with Deputy Mayor Babers’ comments at the public roundtable that WMATA must comply with the public bus fleet electrification targets in the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018. DDOT has already committed and is making strides to electrify the DC Circulator fleet by 2029. We commend DDOT for setting a timeline that far exceeds those in the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Amendment Act of 2018. Now WMATA needs to follow suit, and Deputy Mayor Babers is the right person to deliver the message that fleet electrification can and must be done. We appreciate the Council’s support, and particularly your leadership, Chairman Mendelson, in making this message clear by introducing PR24-0154 - Sense of the Council Urging WMATA’s Bus Fleet Electrification Resolution of 2021. We urge speedy adoption of that resolution.
As a regional authority, WMATA must take a leading role in electric bus deployment. This means coordinating closely not only with District agencies like DDOT, DOEE, and the Department of Public Works, but also with transit agencies in Maryland and Virginia. There is an immense opportunity to build out electrification infrastructure that can benefit all jurisdictions in the region, but we have yet to see the sense of urgency, leadership, and institutional capacity from WMATA that is required.
Furthermore, the appointment of Deputy Mayor Babers would bring more representation of women and people of color to the Board. People of color comprise a majority of Metro’s ridership but are sorely underrepresented on its Board. Her appointment is one additional step towards creating a more representative and diverse leadership at WMATA for the District and the entire region.
Thank you again for the opportunity to submit written testimony. We look forward to working with Deputy Mayor Babers and to continue working with the DC Council to build a stronger and greener Metro.
Respectfully submitted,
Aykut Yılmaz
Vice Chair
Sierra Club DC Chapter