Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Conservative Tea Party Movement Targets Florida Rail Plan
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The conservative "tea party" movement, last seen complaining about the government-funded local transit system that they took during an anti-government march in Washington D.C, is veering back to form in Florida with an organized protest against the state’s proposal for broad new investments in rail transit. The "Tea Party" is now a registered political party […]
Report: Road Funding From Non-Road Users Doubled in 25 Years
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(Image: Subsidyscope) The myth that U.S. roads "pay for themselves" thanks to user fees is a subject that’s likely familiar to many Streetsblog readers — but just how much of the nation’s highway funding is provided by charging drivers? The answer may surprise even active critics of the current asphalt-centric transportation system. Between 1982 and […]
Streetsblog Capitol Hill Q&A: Blumenauer Talks Economic Recovery
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On the issue of clean transportation, from transit to bike paths to clean water, few members of Congress are as knowledgeable or active as Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR). Chief of the Congressional Bicycle Caucus and founder of the new Livable Communities Task Force, the Portland lawmaker is on the front lines of Washington’s biggest infrastructure […]
Who Wants to Buy a New Locomotive? General Electric Hopes Amtrak Does
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General Electric’s Transportation division inked a high-speed rail technology-sharing deal with China last month, but the prospects on the home front for its fuel-efficient locomotives are downright "bleak" heading into 2010, as its chief executive recently told Dow Jones. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), at right, addressed GE Transportation workers in Erie, PA, last year. (Photo: […]
Why Deficit Politics Matter in the Infrastructure Debate
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Infrastructure will be on the menu tomorrow when the White House hosts a "jobs summit" aimed at assuaging public concern over mounting unemployment. Labor leaders have vowed to push for new transport projects, and invitee Paul Krugman is already on record backing a Wall Street transaction tax that some House Democrats want to see benefit […]
The Missed Opportunity For an Urban Stimulus: Mayors ‘Were Ignored’
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Two-thirds of America’s population, and more than three-quarters of its economic productivity, come from major cities. So why did the Obama administration’s economic stimulus law end up giving metropolitan areas the short end of the stick? Daniel Malloy, Democratic mayor of Stamford, CT (Photo: Bridgeport City Council) Harry Moroz of the Drum Major Institute attempts […]
LaHood to Congress: It’s Time to Talk About a Gas Tax Increase
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As Congress maneuvers to end the political impasse over the next long-term national transportation bill, lawmakers going to have to debate an increase in the federal gas tax, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said today. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood (Photo: Getty Images) In his remarks at a Fort Worth transportation meeting, first reported by the local […]
Climate’s 17 Undecided Dems Got $2.3M From Transport & Electric Lobbies
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The trouble with broad analysis pieces on campaign cash is that they often go for eye-popping numbers while obscuring uncomfortable political realities. For example, GreenWire reported this morning that the 27 senators who remain undecided on the chamber’s pending climate bill took "more than $20 million … over the past two decades from energy interests […]
Carlyle Group’s New Infrastructure Public-Private Partnership: Donuts
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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. […]
Pelosi: Passing a Wall Street Transport Tax Would Require Overseas Buy-in
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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. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Photo: MoniqueMonicat) As House Democrats […]
A Warning From America’s Cities: The Recession Has Only Just Begun to Hit
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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. Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter (Photo: PennLive) That was the message delivered today by two economists and a bipartisan […]
‘This Needs Attention’: Senators Seek Shot in the Arm on Transportation
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Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and fellow lawmakers yesterday pressed the Obama administration to take a more active role in ending the current political stalemate over federal transportation funding, but the sense of urgency they sought emerged only intermittently during an 80-minute session on infrastructure. Deputy U.S. Transportation Secretary John Porcari (Photo: DayLife.com) […]