Transport Policy Update: Senate to Pass 6-Month Extension This Week
Before week's end, the Senate will pass a six-month extension of the
nation's four-year-old transportation law -- setting the stage for
another showdown with the House, where transportation committee
chairman Jim Oberstar remains on the fence about abandoning the push for a new long-term bill before 2010.
October 27, 2009
Feds Gambled More on Electric Cars in 6 Months Than Transit Gets All Year
Vice President Joe Biden will return to his home state of Delaware today to announce that California car company Fisker Automotive will reopen a shuttered General Motors plant to build a moderately priced plug-in hybrid that goes by the code name Project NINA.
October 27, 2009
How Bus Transit Can Help the Auto Industry
When Vice President Joe Biden visited
Minnesota's New Flyer bus company to tout the economic stimulus law's
$8.4 billion investment in transit, hopes were high for a boom in
cleaner-burning vehicle production -- which made for some bad press when the nationwide transit funding crunch forced New Flyer to lay off 13 percent of its workers.
October 26, 2009
GOP Senators Protest Evaluating the Climate Impacts of Transport Projects
The 40-year-old National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA),
which requires the federal government to evaluate the environmental
consequences of future projects, is a valuable tool for local residents
and green groups that work to defeat highway expansions -- but as Streetsblog L.A. noted earlier this year, NEPA can be an equally valuable tool for opponents of clean transportation projects.
October 26, 2009
Senate Climate Bill Triples the House’s Investments in Clean Transportation
The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate
change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances"
-- the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system
-- that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American
economy.
October 26, 2009
Senate Signals 6-Month Delay for Transport Bill — But Will the House Agree?
The Senate is leaning towards abandoning the Obama administration's
push for an 18-month delay of the next long-term transportation bill
and now plans to pursue a six-month extension of existing federal
infrastructure law, according to a report from CQ this afternoon:
October 23, 2009
Obama: Climate Pessimism More Dangerous Than Climate Deniers
In a speech much anticipated by those tracking the D.C.
environmental debate, President Obama today took on opponents of
congressional action on climate change, decrying "naysayers" who "make
cynical claims" that ignore scientific evidence of the harm caused by
emissions.
October 23, 2009
Transit Creates As Many Jobs As Roads — But it Could Do Even Better
Members of Congress remain intensely focused on health care this fall, but as the unemployment rate hits double digits in more states, their No. 2 priority is best summed up in three words: Jobs, jobs, jobs.
October 22, 2009
The ‘Infrastructure Condo’ That Could Help Make High-Speed Rail Happen
As the Obama administration prepares to
roll out its ambitious new investment in high-speed rail (HSR),
right-of-way -- primary control over a stretch of train track, whether
existing or envisioned -- has become a major consideration for states
that want to jumpstart local networks.
October 22, 2009
Seeking Stimulus Money For Bike Sharing, D.C. Looks Beyond Cutting CO2
The Transportation Planning Board (TPB), the Washington D.C. area's metropolitan planning organization (MPO), recently made a pitch to the U.S. DOT for a share of the economic stimulus law's $1.5 billion in innovative transport grants. Among the suggested projects was $13 million for bike sharing, enough to expand the D.C. program into a regional network that would use wi-fi internet to guide travelers.
October 22, 2009