Today’s Headlines
(ed. note. Streetsblog Capitol Hill will be on a light publishing schedule today, but resume regular updates tomorrow.)
November 23, 2009
Senate Health Bill Holds Onto Grants For Healthier Transportation
Back in June, when the Senate was in the early stages of its marathon health care reform debate, several Republicans blasted the proposed legislation for including a grant program aimed at encouraging construction of local infrastructure to promote healthier movement.
November 20, 2009
Higher Gas Prices Alone Won’t Make Cleaner Cars a Reality
It's a storyline that the media and the auto industry have embraced: Higher gas prices are the magic ingredient that U.S. carmakers need in order to sell more fuel-efficient vehicles to consumers.
November 20, 2009
Carlyle Group’s New Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership: Donuts
As the federal deficit squeezes the Obama administration's options for financing ambitious new infrastructure projects, public-private partnerships (PPPs) are gaining currency as a possible solution. And in an illustration of PPPs' potential, the $86 billion private-equity firm Carlyle Group yesterday struck a deal with the state of Connecticut to run ... 23 highway rest stops.
November 20, 2009
Today’s Headlines
Controversy grows over the Obama administration’s ill-starred attempt to count jobs created or saved by the economic stimulus law, including transport projects (Bloomberg, NYT Blog) Nominee for Amtrak’s board of directors says the train network needs better financial management (NorthJersey.com) Green transportation analyst: Let’s redirect unused infrastructure stimulus money to transit (Det. News) Untapped demand … Continued
November 20, 2009
Is the Stimulus Working For Cities? Not So Much, Mayors Say
As the Obama administration today faced new criticism of its methods for tracking jobs created or saved by the $787 billion stimulus law, a bipartisan quartet of mayors was weighing in at the Brookings Institution about the recovery effort's impact on their local economies.
November 19, 2009
Pelosi: Passing a Wall Street Transport Tax Would Require Overseas Buy-in
Any proposal to fund new U.S. infrastructure investment by taxing financial transactions -- such as Rep. Pete DeFazio's (D-OR) bill taxing Wall Street oil speculators -- would require international participation to prevent the trades in question from migrating overseas, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said today.
November 19, 2009
DeFazio: Summers, Geithner Oppose Using Bailout Money on Infrastructure
As Streetsblog Capitol Hill readers may know, there is no love lost between lawmakers on the House transportation committee and President Obama's economic advisers.
November 19, 2009
A Warning From America’s Cities: The Recession Has Only Just Begun to Hit
President Obama may be optimistic about continued U.S. economic growth as 2009 ends, but the reality on the ground in urban America -- which an estimated two-thirds of the population calls home -- is undeniably, disturbingly bleak.
November 19, 2009
Today’s Headlines
House Dems continue a growing drumbeat in favor of infrastructure investment to create new jobs … but the funding question remains unanswered (WSJ) Texas Republican gubernatorial foes Hutchison and Perry trade jabs over transportation funding (News Messenger) A new poll with an eye-rolling setup: 6 in 10 people think transit and carpooling are good for … Continued
November 19, 2009