Climate Change

If there's any good news to come out of the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, it's that political leaders and the press are actually talking about climate change. At the end of a long campaign season with barely a mention of the issue, it's a relief to hear some sane discussion of the issue based on the premise that global warming is real.

Judging from the level of our national debate, you would guess we are a nation strongly divided on the issue of climate change. But you'd be wrong, according to a new poll from Yale University.

San Francisco could be headed on a course toward transportation sustainability, granted it's the politically popular thing to do.

While transport reform advocates hailed last week's long-awaited Senate climate bill for directing an estimated $6 billion-plus towards local land use planning and green infrastructure, state DOTs and construction interests criticized the legislation -- suggesting that the measure's sponsors could face stiff resistance from the transportation industry's mainstream despite making concessions to win over all sides.

Proponents of clean energy and environmental laws designed to reduce greenhouse gases had best not take the challenge to California's AB 32 too lightly. Backers of a ballot initiative that would "delay" implementation of the law until the state's unemployment level is below 5.5 percent for a full year look to have gathered enough signatures to put the measure to a vote this November. The coalition collecting signatures for the ballot measure is submitting its signature list for certification to state elections officials and The

The several dozen transportation industry groups that raised questions about where the upcoming Senate climate change bill would send proceeds from its new “linked fee” on carbon fuels can stop worrying — because it looks like the legislation won’t contain any new tax on motor fuels. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) (Photo: Getty) As Sen. John … Continued

The 2009 Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) Annual Report paints a sobering picture of funding crises at nearly every Bay Area Transit operator -- crises we've covered extensively on Streetsblog -- and sums up the situation bluntly: "There is no way to sugarcoat it: These are difficult, daunting days for public transit in the Bay Area."

Transportation groups of all shapes and sizes have been concerned that the Senate's forthcoming climate bill could set back the prospects for a federal transportation measure by imposing extra carbon fees on Big Oil -- which would then be passed on to customers at the pump, effectively increasing the gas tax for purposes other than funding new infrastructure projects.

Government subsidies for hybrid and electric cars, while "politically seductive," will fail to achieve the Obama administration's national pollution-reduction goals if they are not coupled with a significant increase in fuel prices, according to a new study by Harvard University researchers.