A Fiscal Conservative, Congressional Transportation Committee Chair Mica Sees Transit as Efficient Investment

Could the tides be turning on high speed rail?

Our partner, Transportation for America, reports that Florida Republican John Mica could be a key ally on high-speed rail.

T4America turned up this impressive 2009 statement from Mica:

“If you’re on the Transportation Committee long enough, even if you’re a fiscal conservative, which I consider myself to be, you quickly see the benefits of transportation investment. Simply, I became a mass transit fan because it’s so much more cost effective than building a highway. Also, it’s good for energy, it’s good for the environment – and that’s why I like it.”

Read the full T4America article here:  Florida Republican John Mica could be a key ally on high-speed rail.

Because of its impact on climate change, greenhouse gas pollution, energy security, sprawl, public health and the nascent green jobs sector, promoting sustainable transportation options is one of CTLCV’s current focus areas.

Stalled: Fed Funding for Transit & Highway Projects

The Highway Trust Fund, which provides about $41 billion annually to the states for transit and highway projects each year, has been without a funding plan for more than 15 months, and now House Republicans want to appropriate funding for it on an annual basis.

Through legislation, Congress has historically allocated money to the fund for a period of years, instead of through an annual appropriations process, because transportation projects are long term endeavors that need stable, predictable funding.

Senator Chris Dodd championed a National Infrastructure Bank concept that would have created a pool of public and private funds for critical, high priority transportation projects.  But with Dodd out of office, new, persuasive champions need to be recruited for that initiative to go anywhere. Massachusetts Senator John Kerry seems to be stepping up to the plate, with his call for the US to keep pace with the rest of the world or get left behind. 

Meanwhile, until we get our House in order, the public’s call to create jobs, shore up our infrastructure and build transit systems that get us out of our cars goes ignored.

Read more at:

• Governing 
• Tri-State Transportation Campaign
• CT Mirror

It’s Time to Speak Up for Clean Transportation

Transportation for America reports that Majority Leader Harry Reid is making it his priority to pull together climate legislation this week.  He will be meeting with a group of committee chairs, and then Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will be marking up an assortment of energy bills at the end of the week. 

Initial reports suggest the final package will scaled back, and there is a chance the clean transportation provisions from the Kerry Lieberman bill won't make the cut. 

Please call your Senators today and tell them that reducing emissions from transportation is crucial.  Ask them to call Senator Reid in support of clean transportation.  Click here for links to Connecticut’s Congressional Delegation on www.vote-smart.org.   

Not from Connecticut?  Click here and choose your state:  http://www.vote-smart.org/official_congress.php.

More Transit Cuts Coming, Unless Public Transportation Preservation Act Intervenes

– By Michael Wysolmerski, Summer Intern from Yale, 
michael.wysolmerski@ctlcv.org

Just last week, the New York Daily News reported that the MTA has cut the Metro-North 1:34 p.m. express from Grand Central to New Haven, the 2:33 express from New Haven, and the 1:15 a.m. train from Grand Central to Stamford—even though Connecticut, according to a Hartford Courant article, will pay $200,000 to avoid further Metro-North cuts in the state.

The federal Public Transportation Preservation Act (S 3412/HR 5418) could come to the rescue. The bill, which was introduced by Senators Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Frank Lautenberg, Robert Menendez, and Chris Dodd, would provide $2 billion in federal aid to transit agencies across the country that are cutting service and raising fares.

The Public Transportation Preservation Act, according to a press release on Senator Schumer’s (D-NY) website, would provide approximately $345 million for the NYC-NJ-CT urbanized area, which includes southwestern Connecticut, and prevent cuts and higher prices on the Metro North Railroad. More specifically for Connecticut, according to calculations done by Michelle Ernst, TSTC’s staff-analyst, the Connecticut Department of Transportation stands to receive approximately $36 million, while other Connecticut transportation agencies would receive around $2 million, bringing the total funding to the state to around $37 or $38 million.

According to TSTC, the money from the bill could only be put towards transit operations. No capital construction projects could receive funding.

Not only would the bill help preserve public transportation systems, but it would create approximately 72,000 high quality green jobs, according to figures from the American Public Transportation Association.

The bill is rapidly gaining momentum in the Senate, as it now has 11 co-sponsors, yet there are currently only two co-sponsors in the House. According to the TSTC, New York advocates of the bill are urging their representatives to co-sponsor the bill in the House.

Transportation for America urges voters to “keep flooding our senators with letters and calls,” and released an action alert that calls for senators to cosponsor the bill.

Click here to tell your senators to support emergency transit funding and keep America's transit systems running.

Secretary LaHood on High Speed Rail Prospects: “Connecticut Has Its Act Together”

– Kelly Kennedy

US Senator Chris Dodd and US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood made a special appearance at Connecticut’s capitol this morning to discuss the future of the rail corridor connecting New Haven, Hartford and Springfield, MA.

Along with Governor Rell, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, Congressman John Larson, Connecticut Commissioner of Transportation Joe Marie, and Massachusetts  Transportation Secretary Jeff Mullan, Dodd and LaHood rode the Amtrak shuttle along part of the proposed rail line from New Haven to Hartford.

Asked by one reporter what his presence in Connecticut signified, LaHood stated that

“Connecticut has its act together.  This corridor has its act together.  I can’t say that everywhere I go.”

- US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood

Much of the officials’ remarks at the morning press conference emphasized the role that the high speed rail line will play in moving people and products in a more competitive regional economy.  “Connecticut will contribute its fair share” toward making it happen, in proportion to the benefits it will receive, said  DOT Commissioner Joseph Marie.

With other states in the region, Connecticut will compete for a piece of the next round of stimulus funding for transportation, which is $2.5 billion in 2010.  The Obama administration has proposed, but Congress has not yet approved, an additional $1 billion for transportation funding for 2011.

Dodd is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, which has jurisdiction over public transportation. According to Dodd’s office,  Dodd, LaHood and state officials have been working together to deliver federal funds to Connecticut to complete the Tri-City Corridor, which would establish both faster, more frequent intercity and commuter rail service connecting New Haven, Hartford, and Springfield, providing residents of central Connecticut with better access to New York City, western Massachusetts, Vermont and eventually Boston.

T4America Wants Amendments to Clean Energy Bill

Transportation for America is getting the word out that the American Clean Energy & Security Act needs a little tightening up.

The American Clean Energy and Security Act is probably the biggest opportunity in generations to jumpstart our economy; create millions of good, new, jobs; and set the stage for America to prosper and lead in a 21st century economy, while reducing global warming pollution at the same time.

While China and India made massive investments in developing clean energy, oil and coal lobbyists are desperately trying to put the brakes on clean energy development in the US.

According to Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General, clean energy investment in the United States fell by 2% in recent years, but in 2008 China became the world’s second largest wind market in terms of new capacity and the world’s biggest photovoltaic manufacturer. A rise in geothermal energy may be getting underway in countries from Australia to Japan and Kenya.

Meanwhile, Wall Street Journal reports from a few days ago reveal that sustainable energy investment in India went up to $3.7billion in 2008, up 12% since 2007.

If Americans are serious about wanting to restore prosperity and lead the 21st century global economy, T4America and others argue that we must level the playing field for new energy industries and limit the entitlements and tax breaks and government handouts that have been par for the course for the energy industries that ruled last century.

T4 America calls on Congress to strengthen the bill through three amendments:

• Amendment #1: Ensure more clean energy for America. Increase the Renewable Electricity Standard to 30 percent by 2020. Support renewable energy and energy efficiency to deliver more clean energy jobs to the U.S. economy more quickly.
• Amendment #2: Hold Polluters accountable. Restore authority to the EPA to regulate carbon emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.
• Amendment #3: Create more clean energy jobs for America and build resiliency to climate change. Reduce allocations to polluting industries in order to supplement allowance accounts that would bolster green job development and would protect vulnerable communities that are impacted first and worst by climate change. Shave allocations from fossil fuel producers and redistribute them to programs that deliver energy efficiency and renewable energy, create green jobs and train workers to fill them, and protect natural resources here and around the world.

Business as usual, or even mostly as usual, will not cure us of our fossil fuels habit or position us to compete well against the economic behemoths that are China and India. Congress needs to chart a new course. Tell them.