Climate Change
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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
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
GOPers Re-Name the Climate Bill Again: Now It’s a ‘Gas Tax’!
Seven months after first trying
to re-brand congressional climate change legislation as an "energy
tax," Senate Republicans were back at it today with a new report and op-ed that attempts to expose the climate bill as a "$3.6 trillion gas tax."
October 21, 2009
16 Cities That Are Leading the Way in the Climate Change Fight
Long before Congress started to take the threat of climate change
seriously, American mayors were already recognizing the need to
decrease fossil-fuel consumption, promote efficiency, and generally
create more livable places.
October 20, 2009
How Climate Change Affects Transportation Infrastructure
A sobering post today from the Streetsblog Network on the importance of preparing our transportation system for the effects of climate change. Megan McConville at The City Fix reports on a panel titled "Perspectives on Adaptation to Climate Change," hosted by the Engineers Forum on Sustainability.
October 20, 2009
Transportation Allowances in the Climate Bill: A Tale of Two Modes
To understand why the climate change bill is a top priority
for urbanists, it's crucial to understand the emissions allowances that
the legislation distributes. The allowances essentially put the "trade"
in "cap-and-trade" --
whichever industry or state government holds them can benefit from
their monetary value or use them to emit pollution under the "cap."
October 16, 2009
What Washington Can Do For — And Alongside — Metro Area Planners
At one point midway through yesterday's Brookings Institution forum on metropolitan planning, moderator Chris Leinberger
quipped that Portland was deliberately not represented. It's not that
Portland isn't a model of sustainability, he explained, but that "we
all have Portland fatigue" -- that urban policy thinkers are eager to
expand the models of local development beyond Oregon.
October 14, 2009
Congestion Pricing: Still Good For Basically Everyone
Urbanists often find themselves falling into a pattern of thinking
that boils down to the dictum that what's good for drivers must be bad
for walkability, and sustainability, and all the things that they prize
about well-designed cities. Drivers seem to believe this too, which is
interesting because it often isn't true.
October 13, 2009
CNU Summit to Focus on Reforming Transportation, Planning Principles
The Congress for the New Urbanism will meet in Portland, Oregon, in early November for the annual Project for Transportation Reform, a summit to further define and clarify emerging urban transportation policies that embrace entire networks, rather than interdependent transportation segments, and that seek to balance modal transportation splits and reduce overall vehicular miles traveled (VMT).
October 9, 2009