Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization seeks input from East Tennessee residents
New public participation survey designed to gauge awareness of and attitudes toward greenhouse gas emissions and climate change
The Knoxville Regional Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) seeks the public’s feedback on the impact of greenhouse gas emissions in East Tennessee.
The TPO encourages residents of all nine counties within the Knoxville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA)–Knox, Anderson, Blount, Campbell, Grainger, Loudon, Morgan, Roane and Union–to take a ten-minute survey and share their perspective on topics like climate change, energy efficiency, transportation and more to shape ongoing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the region.
The survey consists of fifteen questions designed to gauge residents’ awareness of and attitudes toward climate change and will inform a public engagement strategy that meets the diverse population residing in the Knoxville MSA.
The survey is open through September 30, 2024 and is available to take online at https://www.knoxbreathesurvey.com/. To ensure confidentiality, no personally identifying information will be shared.
In 2023, the Knoxville MSA was selected by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to receive a planning grant to create a regional emission reduction plan as part of the agency’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grants (CPRG) program. Knoxville was one of 82 metropolitan areas that received CPRG funding throughout the United States.
The CPRG program, authorized as part of the federal Inflation Reduction Act, has distributed $5 billion in grants to states, local governments, tribes and territories to develop and implement ambitious plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other harmful air pollution. The region’s CPRG is led by the City of Knoxville’s Office of Sustainability in partnership with the Knoxville Regional TPO. The State of Tennessee is currently developing a statewide emissions reduction plan, called the Tennessee Volunteer Emission Reduction Strategy (TVERS), led by the state’s department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC).
“BREATHE” is the name for the Knoxville region’s CPRG initiative. Efforts undertaken as part of “BREATHE” aim to strengthen the region’s response to climate change and drive public engagement to develop a Comprehensive Climate Action Plan and submit it to the EPA by December 1, 2025.
To learn more about the “BREATHE” initiative, please visit knoxbreathe.org.
