Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Philly Mayor Tells Senate: Climate Bill Can Help Make Cities Greener
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As the Senate opened its second round of climate change hearings today, Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter delivered the urban case for climate legislation, outlining an array of infrastructure improvements and green reforms that would be made possible by federal action to reduce carbon emissions. A sample image of Philadelphia’s proposed "green corridors." (Image: Lomo Civic […]
Transport Policy Update: Senate to Pass 6-Month Extension This Week
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Before week’s end, the Senate will pass a six-month extension of the nation’s four-year-old transportation law — setting the stage for another showdown with the House, where transportation committee chairman Jim Oberstar remains on the fence about abandoning the push for a new long-term bill before 2010. Photo: USGS.gov Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) […]
Feds Gambled More on Electric Cars in 6 Months Than Transit Gets All Year
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Vice President Joe Biden will return to his home state of Delaware today to announce that California car company Fisker Automotive will reopen a shuttered General Motors plant to build a moderately priced plug-in hybrid that goes by the code name Project NINA. The Wilmington, Delaware, GM plant that Fisker plans to reopen. Photo: NYT […]
Senate Climate Bill Triples the House’s Investments in Clean Transportation
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The Senate environment committee released new details of its climate change legislation over the weekend, including the share of "emissions allowances" — the revenue generated by regulating carbon in a cap-and-trade system — that the bill would reserve for various sectors of the American economy. Sens. John Kerry (D-MA) and Barbara Boxer (D-CA), the climate […]
GOPers Re-Name the Climate Bill Again: Now It’s a ‘Gas Tax’!
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Seven months after first trying to re-brand congressional climate change legislation as an "energy tax," Senate Republicans were back at it today with a new report and op-ed that attempts to expose the climate bill as a "$3.6 trillion gas tax." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) (Photo: GOP Lounge) Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and […]
How the $8.7 Billion Transportation Contracting Gap Is Hitting Your State
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Earlier this month, Streetsblog Capitol Hill reported on the fallout from Congress’ failure to prevent an $8.7 billion "rescission" — fancy legislative talk for the cancellation of funds — from taking effect on September 30. Though media coverage focused largely on the rescission’s impact on road projects, the lost money has hit clean transportation hard. […]
New Study Shows $56 Billion in Hidden Health Damage From Autos
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Transportation’s effects on public health are rarely discussed by policy-makers, but they remain very real — and the National Research Council (NRC) put a number on them Monday, reporting that cars and trucks have about $56 billion in "hidden" health costs that are not reflected in the price of oil or electricity. Photo: MetroDCLiving.com In […]
Transport Debate Still Stalled As Oberstar Decries “Lack of Political Will”
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Halfway through the extra month that Congress gave itself to resolve a long-simmering dispute over funding the nation’s transportation system, Democratic leaders remain deadlocked over whether — and how long — to wait before debating a broad reform of federal infrastructure policy. The transportation secretary and the president have a stalemate on their hands. Photo: […]
Obama Ally Breaks With White House on Timing of New Transport Bill
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Sen. Dick Durbin (IL), the No. 2 Democratic leader in the upper chamber of Congress and a close ally of the president, broke with the White House Monday and called for a new long-term transportation bill to pass by early next year — not after the Obama administration’s preferred 18-month delay. Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin […]
Inside the Rail Worker Disability Program That Never Says “No”
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Independent auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) have just released the results of their lengthy investigation of the Railroad Retirement Board, the federal agency that evaluates disability claims by commuter railroad workers — and has historically approved more than 99 percent of them. Photo: NYT The New York Times obtained an early copy of […]
Bush DOT Chief Backs Transport Tech Funding
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Former Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, who served for eight years in George W. Bush’s DOT, sat down with Streetsblog Capitol Hill this week to urge that Congress add a dedicated funding stream of $1 billion each year for transportation technology to the next long-term infrastructure bill. Since leaving office, Peters has transitioned to private consulting […]
NYC, SF, and DC Sign Deals to Upgrade Transit Technology
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IBM’s Smarter Planet project, which uses technology (and sometimes plain old polling) in an effort to revamp urban infrastructure, today signed deals with transit agencies in New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. to "smartly" manage the ins and outs of keeping trains and buses running. New York’s LIRR, San Francisco’s BART, and D.C.’s Metro […]