Streetsblog Capitol Hill
Oil Industry Tears Page from Health Care Playbook to Battle Climate Bill
Thanks to conservative groups that have worked for months to stoke false rumors about Congress' health care effort, a wave of negative "town hall" stories is now dominating the media -- and inspiring the oil industry to work up a similar campaign of its own against the climate change bill.
August 14, 2009
Report: Boxer ‘Sympathetic to’ Backers of More Climate Money for Transit
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.
August 14, 2009
Could Electric-Car Tax Credits Become the Next “Cash for Clunkers”?
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.
August 14, 2009
The Times’ Thickheaded Train Tag Team
The New York Times has now turned loose writers at two of its economics blogs to make weak arguments against the construction of high-speed rail lines.
August 14, 2009
Midwest High-Speed Rail Group Starts Lobby Push for House’s $4B Bill
Congress agrees that the White House's ambitious high-speed rail plan should be funded next year -- but the House is pushing for $2.8 billion more than the Senate, setting up a high-stakes battle that rail advocates want the House to win.
August 13, 2009
Distracted Driving Laws Lack Teeth in Some States
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.
August 13, 2009
Obama Administration Touts Nation’s First All-Electronic Toll Road in N.C.
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.
August 13, 2009
A Better — and Cooler — Version of “Cash for Clunkers”
During the Senate's debate over giving $2 billion more to the "cash for clunkers" car rebate program, John McCain (R-AZ) quipped that "cash for refrigerators" might be next in line.
August 12, 2009
Electric Cars and the Future of the Gas Tax
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 those without garages could charge a Volt. But another byproduct of the electric-car boom is getting less attention: its effect on the nation's transportation funding impasse.
August 12, 2009
Transport Construction Industry Mobilizes for Oberstar’s Bill
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 transportation bill has evaporated.
August 12, 2009