Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Report: Boxer ‘Sympathetic to’ Backers of More Climate Money for Transit
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As Barbara Boxer (D-CA) works on her upcoming climate change bill, the Senate environment committee chairman is "definitely looking at" a plan to give green transport 10 percent of the revenue generated from carbon emissions caps, according to a new report from BNA’s Transportation Watch. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: Politics Now) […]
Could Electric-Car Tax Credits Become the Next “Cash for Clunkers”?
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The White House’s commitment to electrified cars, fulfilling an Obama campaign promise to put 1 million plug-in hybrids into service by 2015, is bound to have serious ramifications for the nation’s already-crumbling system of paying for transportation. (Photo: MPR) But could the administration continue to leave the gas tax untouched while relying on taxpayer-subsidized rebates […]
Distracted Driving Laws Lack Teeth in Some States, Not CA
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For a story today on the political challenge of outlawing texting behind the wheel, the Washington Post sent its reporter to a downtown intersection to track whether drivers were obeying the city’s ban on hand-held cell phones. (Photo: brainlink.org) The results were disheartening: 35 law-breakers passed by in 30 minutes. But even more dismaying, as […]
Obama Administration Touts Nation’s First All-Electronic Toll Road in N.C.
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The U.S. DOT dispatched Federal Highway Administrator Victor Mendez to North Carolina yesterday to kick off construction of the $1 billion Triangle Expressway, the state’s first toll road and the nation’s first to use per-mile electronic tolling. The scene at yesterday’s N.C. toll road groundbreaking. (Photo: WRAL) The highway was financed by a package of […]
Electric Cars and the Future of the Gas Tax
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GM’s highly publicized claim to triple-digit fuel efficiency for its new Chevy Volt has sparked a debate over the solidity of the estimate as well as the lack of charging stations where non-garage-owners could charge a Volt. But another byproduct of the rise of electric vehicles is getting less attention: its effect on the nation’s transportation funding crisis. […]
Transport Construction Industry Mobilizes for Oberstar’s Bill
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Acrimonious opposition to health care reform has become the biggest political story of an otherwise sleepy August, but that doesn’t mean grassroots lobbying on the House’s six-year transportation bill has evaporated. (Image: ARTBA) The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), which represents major construction companies, released a bulletin to members today urging them to […]
Senate’s New DOT Spending Bill Eases One Transit Funding Barrier
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An artist’s rendering of the proposed multi-modal Columbia River Crossing, with light rail and a bike path beneath the bridge. (Photo: Oregonian) During the lengthy process of pursuing a "New Starts" funding agreement with the U.S. DOT, local transit officials are often at the mercy of cost-benefit calculations that have failed to keep pace with […]
New ‘Clunkers’ Analysis: Trucks, SUVs More Popular Than Suggested
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When the Obama administration first called for more "cash for clunkers" last week, two influential senators said they could not back an extension without stronger efficiency standards for the program’s trade-ins — only to drop their opposition after viewing U.S. DOT sales figures that showed buyers snapping up gas-sipping cars. Is this Ford Escape the […]
30 Congressmen Propose Oil Futures Tax to Pay for Transportation
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More than a month after he first proposed the idea, Rep. Pete DeFazio (OR) — along with 29 fellow Democrats — has introduced legislation that would levy a small tax on oil futures trades in order to close the yawning gap in the federal transportation budget. Oil traders on the New York Mercantile Exchange. (Photo: […]
The Peculiar Federalism of Transit Safety: No National Standards Exist
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The recent crash of two D.C. Metro trains has laid bare a glaring lack of authority at the obscure local committee that is supposed to ensure transit riders’ safety, as the Washington Post reported today. But the problem is bigger than the nation’s capital: The Federal Transit Administration (FTA) has not issued broad safety rules […]
Electrified Transportation’s Big Week in Washington
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While lawmakers were approving billions of dollars to entice auto buyers into moderate fuel-efficiency progress this week, the Obama administration was ramping up its push for electrified transportation. The Chevy Volt (Photo: TreeHugger) The president awarded $2.4 billion in grants to electric battery companies on Wednesday, with more than half of General Motors’ $241 million […]
Audit Finds U.S. DOT’s Transit Record-Keeping ‘Unreliable,’ ‘Inaccurate’
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The disjointed state of "New Starts," the Federal Transit Administration’s (FTA) program to fund new rail and bus lines, is well-known on the Hill — in fact, House transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar (D-MN) recently quipped that it ought to be renamed "small starts, low starts, and no starts." With Oberstar’s six-year transportation re-write bill […]