cartky.org

Dear Senator McConnell,
The appropriations committee has passed the FY 09 spending bill for Transportation and HUD. Thanks to you there were over $9 million in earmarks for public transit in Kentucky:

C-J: "U.S. House approves transit bill that would aid TARC"

Bottom line: 4.6 million over 2 years and Feds would pick up 100% match on either hybrid busses ($525,000 free!) or the cost difference between hybrids and diesels ($200,000 free!). Either way a good deal. This still needs to pass the Senate and get signed by the President. After that it will roughly negate half of the budget shortfall from high diesel prices. That's not counting the ~5% shortfall in projected occupational tax revenue. Bottom line: A promising step but not a pancea.

Famous Global Warming Scientist basically gives up on the world's remaining oil. "Oil is going to get used and it's going to get in the atmosphere . . . and it doesn't really matter much how fast we burn it" because it'll all be burned soon anyway. But: "Coal is the one that we could prevent, so I think the most important near-term thing is to say let's have a moratorium on coal." Read the whole article at the Washington Post.

Via the Environmental Law and Policy Center:

The U.S. House just a few moments ago passed HR-6003, the Passenger Rail Investment & Improvement Act of 2008, by a veto-proof majority.... 311 to 104.

You'll recall the Senate passed its version of the bill (S-294) by a 93 to 6 margin late last year.

The next step will be for the bill to go to a joint House-Senate Conference Committee. The conferees have not yet been named.

This bill, if it becomes law, will not only greatly increase funding for Amtrak, but carries the first-ever state matching grant program that can advance the Ohio Hub Plan and state-generated passenger rail plans like it around the nation.

Good news indeed!

Via Centerlines #201, the the newsletter of the National Center for Bicycling & Walking:

According to a May 1 news release from Barbara McCann and the National Complete Streets Coalition, there are some important developments in the US House and Senate on Complete Streets bills.

Good editorial at the Washington Post.

[W]e call upon Congress to revisit recently enacted federal mandates requiring the diversion of foodstuffs for production of biofuels. These "food-to-fuel" mandates were meant to move America toward energy independence and mitigate global climate change. But the evidence irrefutably demonstrates that this policy is not delivering on either goal. In fact, it is causing environmental harm and contributing to a growing global food crisis.

The National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission has provided it's report to Congress.  At my first reading, this report merely looked like a treasure trove of handy quotes endorsing CART's vision.  For example:

Download PDF (8 pages, 600kB)

Contents:

• Midwest Regional Rail Initiative Study: Getting Transportation Back On Track
• Study: Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's finds "a top-heavy bureaucracy, with no comprehensive vision and an unsustainable debt load"
• Chicago: Nature Museum Supports Rail Transit
• "TEA 21" federal transit bills "stalled and in trouble".
• KYTC Explores I-71 Corridor Improvements
• The State of Freight