House Transportation & Infrastructure Committee Chair John Mica introduced a proposed surface transportation bill yesterday. Titled the American Energy & Infrastructure Jobs Act, the bill contains something to make everyone happy as well as things to make everyone unhappy.
To please Senate Democrats, who want to keep spending more than the government is collecting in gasoline and other transportation taxes, the bill proposes to spend $260 billion over five years. That’s at least $10 billion a year more than revenues.
To please Tea Party Republicans, who want to reduce pork barrel spending, the bill contains no earmarks, consolidates or eliminates 70 different programs, and eliminate mandates that states spend highway money on bike paths and other non-highway programs. To please rail nuts, the bill streamlines the rail planning and approval process. To please the energy industry, the bill mandates approval for the Keystone pipeline.
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The bill eliminates New Starts, Congestion Mitigation/Air Quality, and other competitive grant funds, focusing instead on formula grants for both highways and transit. The Antiplanner thinks this is a good thing, but naturally transit and especially rail transit interests will be upset. What good is a streamlined rail planning process if there is no multibillion federal fund to pay for rail construction?
Politico argues that Mica is offering a trade-off: continue to overspend in exchange for eliminating pork programs. Rumor has it that Senate Democrats just want a bill, any bill that keeps spending at historic rates, so they can continue to distribute large sums of federal money to their states. Whether their constituents will accept what amounts to a scorched-earth policy of their favorite programs in exchange for that money is yet to be seen. The Tea Party will continue to oppose overspending while rail interests will want their special funds, so this bill will still face intense opposition.
The earmarks will be stuffed into the bill at the last minute, the bill attached to another bill that must be passed, and then everyone will complain about this totally predictable process.
Randal, has there been a substantive discussion about spending money on things that are national priorities (such as the Interstate system and the larger National Highway System, but probably not most of Amtrak and light rail lines)?
I don’t get the impression that this debate has taken place on Capitol Hill.
What Sandy said.
To please Senate Democrats, who want to keep spending more than the government is collecting in gasoline and other transportation taxes, the bill proposes to spend $260 billion over five years. That’s at least $10 billion a year more than revenues.
I agree that to address the crumbling infra, gas taxes need to be raised much higher. And it will cut consumption and emissions too.
DS
Explain to me again why a “National Highway System” is important, as opposed to a “National Rail System” or a “National Transit System,” the latter two particularly for regional and intercity mobility not effectively served by air, and urban mobility as an effective alternative to personal vehicles?? And yes, we’d like intercity mobility that faster than 50-55 mph buses, since that is required to offset the door-to-door advantages of driving…
Oh, I forgot…the majority of those commenting here here are ideologically opposed to any sort of transportation that doesn’t involve rubber tires…
This particular topic requires a long flame war. I hope I’ve started it! :-0
mstetty wrote:
Explain to me again why a “National Highway System†is important, as opposed to a “National Rail System†or a “National Transit System,†the latter two particularly for regional and intercity mobility not effectively served by air, and urban mobility as an effective alternative to personal vehicles?? And yes, we’d like intercity mobility that faster than 50-55 mph buses, since that is required to offset the door-to-door advantages of driving…
The national rail system exists, but is largely owned by private-sector corporations, though various units of government subsidized its construction, going back to the earliest days of the B&O and PRR.
The national transit system is mostly air transport, with some rail (e.g. NEC) and bus service.
Regarding buses, why are they limited to 55 MPH?
Oh, I forgot…the majority of those commenting here here are ideologically opposed to any sort of transportation that doesn’t involve rubber tires…
I think that the majority are opposed to faith-based transportation planning.
Aside from New York City (Second Avenue Subway) and some of its close-in suburbs (a possible extension of the 7 subway line to North Jersey), where will the patronage justify the construction of new rail lines and very expensive rolling stock?
This particular topic requires a long flame war. I hope I’ve started it!
Why?
I heart C.P.’s retorts…
Why not a national passenger railway system? Same reason the Pony Express went out of business.
“When I bought the US Postal Service “forever stamp”, I didn’t realize that was the delivery time”. – Jay Leno
Why are the republicans obsessed with Keystone? Nobody has said it won’t be built, they just need to submit a viable plan to the dept. of state.
While I think provisions for pipeline capacity from Canada to the US should be included in the bill I strongly object to stating Keystone is the only option.
I would actually much rather see this pipeline built by an American company like Kinder Morgan who isn’t stupid enough to route a pipeline through an aquifer and who successfully manages thousands of miles of US oil pipelines on a daily basis.
Republicans are already seeing contributions from red farm states dropping off a cliff because of their perceived anti agro stance with Keystone (still only 36% approval) so why are republicans continuing to stoke the flames?
I come from a very conservative agro family and I know several family members who will not be bothered to vote because of the republican stance on this one issue (of course they will never vote for Obama).
msetty said:
Explain to me again why a “National Highway System†is important, as opposed to a “National Rail System†or a “National Transit System,†the latter two particularly for regional and intercity mobility not effectively served by air, and urban mobility as an effective alternative to personal vehicles?? And yes, we’d like intercity mobility that faster than 50-55 mph buses, since that is required to offset the door-to-door advantages of driving…
Oh, I forgot…the majority of those commenting here here are ideologically opposed to any sort of transportation that doesn’t involve rubber tires…
This particular topic requires a long flame war. I hope I’ve started it! :-0
THWM: They hate rail just because, it’s rail.
It’s exactly the same thing with KKK types that hate black people just because, they are black people.
I come from a very conservative agro family and I know several family members who will not be bothered to vote because of the republican stance on this one issue (of course they will never vote for Obama).
Actually this one issue is indicative – please a very narrow cadre of harmful dinosaur donors and the he– with everyone else, YOYO (you’re on your own). Citizens United will allow some of this to happen because vested interests can pour money into favorable elections.
DS
Iced Borscht wrote:
I heart C.P.’s retorts…
Iced, thanks for the kind comment.
CPZ spake thus:
I think that the majority are opposed to faith-based transportation planning.
You mean like toll roads? “Faith based” is a good moniker for expectations that toll roads can cover their costs at “reasonable” prices, particularly expensive urban commuter projects. Given what’s reported in the link below, in the past several years most new toll roads certainly qualify as “faith based.”
Certainly, CPZ, being in the “belly of the beast” (Washington, D.C.), you should have seen this by now:
http://www.baconsrebellion.com/PDFs/2012/01/Wilbur_Smith.pdf
Articles about the above report:
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5726.
http://reston2020.blogspot.com/…/rca-study-shows-wilbur-smith-toll.html
Been there, done that.
Just looked through the bill. Looks as though it will disproportionately effect the poor and disabled and result in service cuts (mostly bus service). Seems about par for the course these days.
http://republicans.transportation.house.gov/Media/file/112th/Highways/2012-01-31-American_Energy_and_Infrastructure_Jobs_Act.pdf
Looks as though it will disproportionately effect the poor and disabled and result in service cuts (mostly bus service).
YOYO, yo! That’s how they roll. Let us hope Occupy will crank up again in spring for a nice conversation in an election year.
DS
Oh, I forgot…the majority of those commenting here here are ideologically opposed to any sort of transportation that doesn’t involve rubber tires…
Not really. I’m for anything that makes commuting less of a pain in the as$. And right now, my options are essentially limited to (i) my car or (ii) Trimet. I would be perfectly happy biking to work but I have to drop my son off at school at 8:15 a.m. and then somehow get downtown by 9 a.m.-ish. The logistics of that are typically pure hell. And even if I did have time to bike, where and when am I going to shower? I would stink like a stable after that sort of bike ride.
At that point, I’m essentially at Trimet’s mercy because I don’t want to pay $12-$15 per day for parking. And since Trimet has a hammerlock on local transportation options (not to mention a captive customer base), they are free to act like the monopolist cretins they are.
So what was that simplistic argument you were making?
And even if I did have time to bike, where and when am I going to shower? I would stink like a stable after that sort of bike ride.
This is key. CA was way ahead of the game years ago incentivizing showers in workplaces. I had a shower at work starting in 1995, and not only did it allow quite a few of us to bike commute, but many more to run at lunch, including 3 ultramarathoners. This simple addition would enable much more exercise in my view.
DS
msetty wrote:
You mean like toll roads? “Faith based†is a good moniker for expectations that toll roads can cover their costs at “reasonable†prices, particularly expensive urban commuter projects. Given what’s reported in the link below, in the past several years most new toll roads certainly qualify as “faith based.â€
Certainly, CPZ, being in the “belly of the beast†(Washington, D.C.), you should have seen this by now:
http://www.baconsrebellion.com/PDFs/2012/01/Wilbur_Smith.pdf
Articles about the above report:
http://www.tollroadsnews.com/node/5726.
http://reston2020.blogspot.com/2012/01/rca-study-shows-wilbur-smith-toll.html
I am quite familiar with all of the above. Glad you read Peter’s TOLLROADSNews site. But are you familiar with why the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) issued (and wants to issue more) bonds secured by Dulles Toll Road (Va. 267) revenues? It has nothing to do with building or even expanding the Toll Road (the original construction bond principal would have been largely paid-off in this decade, with no increase in tolls).
It has everything to do with the cost of building this.
I am not sure how a bunch of people unilaterally occupying public urban spaces with drums, garbage, bad smells, and rats, results in the public wanting to subsidize urban transit. But if the warmer weather adds to all there effects, then we might find out.
Maybe all the transit bonds will pass with 99% subsidies?
Dan wrote:
“This is key. CA was way ahead of the game years ago incentivizing showers in workplaces. I had a shower at work starting in 1995, and not only did it allow quite a few of us to bike commute, but many more to run at lunch, including 3 ultramarathoners. This simple addition would enable much more exercise in my view.”
Cycling a bit slower helps a lot, too.
Cycling a bit slower helps a lot, too.
In California where I lived, in the morning frequently there was a 20 kt headwind, gusting to 28-32. When I moved across the causeway to Davis, there would be a headwind both ways (learned why the Davis cyclists were so strong) which makes for strenuous effort and showering. Now I live in rolling hills and wind. In the western U.S. these things are common and why we like our showers.
But yes, one could slow down a bit. Not sure I could handle it, though. ;o)
DS
Oh, and we had about 25cm of snowfall last night & still coming, and will drag the kid on her sled behind the bike. Will need a shower after that too…
DS
Enjoy the cooling! Denver has cooled since 2000. Many sites in Colorado have; some higher elevations have dropped precipitously. See for yourself. Run trends from 2000 to 2011. Generally downward, with the exception of some heat islands.
This part of the world has gotten less snow, warmer winters, and our last August was a record warm one – many of us gardeners had nothing ripen in August as it was too hot. Nonetheless, the summers have been cooler and drier as well, as we know, which makes us overall annually cooler on climate scales (but warmer in the winter). But this is not indicative of the rest of the planet, as we all know.
DS
Dan wrote:
This part of the world has gotten less snow, warmer winters, and our last August was a record warm one – many of us gardeners had nothing ripen in August as it was too hot. Nonetheless, the summers have been cooler and drier as well, as we know, which makes us overall annually cooler on climate scales (but warmer in the winter). But this is not indicative of the rest of the planet, as we all know.
Agreed. Consider this from The Local (emphasis added):
‘Too cold’ for trains in northern Sweden
Temperatures in the far north of Sweden, which have been hovering around -30 degrees Celsius for the past few days are set to fall further on Monday and Tuesday before easing off towards the end of the week.
CPZ: there was snow in Rome this past week, such that they had to issue snow shovels. While here in the states, there has been no winter to speak of. Jeff Masters the other day said he didn’t recognize the patterns in the atmosphere any more. Here in the west, the warm winters have helped the outbreak of Mountain Pine Beetle. We are entering a new normal, with much more uncertainty, variability, and power in the atmosphere – making wet areas wetter, dry areas drier, and warmth moving north (as the plants and animals already tell us as they move north and up).
DS
A mild and snowless winter in the lower 48 states is as common as an extremely brutal and cold winter in Alaska. When it’s really cold in Alaska and it tends to snow alot. It just happens to be warmer in the lower 48 states it’s a phenomenon known to scientists as the Pacific North American Oscilation. When the jet stream periodically reverses it goes North, Alaska will get warm and dump it’s risidual cold air to the lower 48 particularly in the Great Plains which gets dumped on by snow on the order of several feet at times record amounts. Hawaii is exempt as it’s weather doesn’t change much throughout the year. The opposite effect occurs when the Oscilation goes to nomal and Alaska gets cold again or colder than normal and the lower 48 have rather pleasant winters. It’s not abnormal or weird, it simply happens. And not too long ago, the Eastern seaboard cities of the United States were dumped on by 6 feet of snow or more. And snow as far south as South Carolina to Florida. The positive phase of the PNA pattern is associated with above-average temperatures over western Canada and the extreme western United States, and below-average temperatures across the south-central and southeastern U.S. The PNA tends to have little impact on surface temperature variability over North America during summer. The associated precipitation anomalies include above-average totals in the Gulf of Alaska extending into the Pacific Northwestern United States, and below-average totals over the upper Midwestern United States. The negative PNA phase is associated with the opposite.
While we debate the issue of temperature increase and it’s effect on wildlife. The current concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is about 380 parts per million. Before we industrialized back when life expectancy was in the 40s, the concentration was about 280. Fewer than 100 million years ago the carbon dioxide concentration was a bit less than 3,000 ppm. Around 175 million years ago it was pushing 6,000. If there was that much more carbon dioxide around how could coniferous trees have survived. Coniferous trees evolved well over 300 million years ago, the Carboniferous period. Insects were far larger than todays and fossils indicate beetles have been around since then. To many, when it comes to global warming, facts don’t matter. But here are a few: conifers and beetles have been around for 300 million plus years, on a planet that was much, much warmer, had much more carbon dioxide in its atmosphere, got hit by an asteroid or two, baked by a massive continental size lava eruption, possibly scorched by intense gamma rays from a distant star, experienced ice ages and is now in the midst of an otherwise slight warming trend. You can bet that they’ll be around a long time after humans have come to the end of the evolutionary road.
Now there is a new climate conference in Rio, Brazil. I only hope the diplomats and celebrities show up in an efficient way, let us not get a remake of the Copenhagen conference in 2009 where hundreds of Mercedes, BMW’s and Lexus’ dotted the parking lots. A free bus was actually provided to them, but sadly it was empty throughout the entire event. Instead to get to Copenhagen, Leaders and Hollywood showed up in 1,200 limos, thousands of personal automobiles and 140 private planes. No VW buses running on peanut oil, no fully booked passenger planes, no buses, no soy cube snacks. Instead the top hotels all fully booked at £650 a night were readying their Climate Convention menus of (no doubt sustainable) scallops, foie gras and sculpted caviar wedges. And that being Scandinavia, even the prostitutes are doing their bit for the planet. Outraged by a council postcard that had urged delegates to “be sustainable, don’t buy sex,” the local sex workers’ union (they have unions here) announced that all its 1,400 members had been willing to give free intercourse to anyone with a climate conference delegate’s pass. The whole thing outta be, if you don’t practice what you preach, you probably shouldn’t be telling others how to live.
I have a lot of respect for climate science, which has a lot to tell us. But it is very hard to find good conversations about climate science.
Computer models are not science, especially models that have not been tested a posteriori. Scientists making policy and political pronouncements is not science. Scientists ranking movies and TV shows is not science.
And people who say the sky is falling, but don’t act like the sky is falling in their personal actions, are not believable.
But it is very hard to find good conversations about climate science.
Especially when we see conversations containing talking points such as Computer models are not science [the standard used is “computer model output is not data” but we get the drift], Scientists making policy and political pronouncements is not science [of course it is not, it is scientists making policy statements], “CO2 was higher in the past”, the “chicken little is a hypocrite” thing, and all the other authoritatively asserted talking points that were refuted years ago, and still to this day are invalid and mean nothing except for muddling the civic discourse and providing another excuse for delaying action.
Nonetheless, this is only peripherally related to repairing our infrastructure, in that we will be spending much more money on climate effects mitigation and adaptation in the future, and where will that money come from? Lots of competing needs as we have failed to address our crumbling infra as other expenditures loom.
DS
As demonstrated here, it is like talking to Jehovah Witnesses who are drinking and smoking.
Sandy Teal said:
As demonstrated here, it is like talking to Jehovah Witnesses who are drinking and smoking.
THWM: Well you “libertarians” complain constantly about “big government” despite getting an awful lot from it!
C. P. Zilliacus said:
Dan wrote:
This part of the world has gotten less snow, warmer winters, and our last August was a record warm one –many of us gardeners had nothing ripen in August as it was too hot. Nonetheless, the summers have been cooler and drier as well, as we know, which makes us overall annually cooler on climate scales (but warmer in the winter). But this is not indicative of the rest of the planet, as we all know.
Agreed. Consider this from The Local (emphasis added):
‘Too cold’ for trains in northern Sweden
Temperatures in the far north of Sweden, which have been hovering around -30 degrees Celsius for the past few days are set to fall further on Monday and Tuesday before easing off towards the end of the week.
THWM: In that news article it even mentioned that driving should be avoided due to the extreme cold!
CPZ, go jump in back of a garbage truck.