Elana Schor
Recent Posts
Stimulus Spotlight: Oregon’s Solar Highway
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The first of Oregon’s "solar highway" installations, which are receiving $2 million from the federal stimulus. (Photo: ODOT via Flickr) Washington’s normally frenetic pace slows down in August, when humid weather and the absence of Congress combine to give the capital some recharging time. But this month also marks a half-year since the economic stimulus […]
As “Cash for Clunkers” Sputters, a Privately Funded Spinoff Picks Up
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The U.S. DOT began signaling yesterday that it would bring the "cash for clunkers" program to an end amid growing unease from auto dealers about the government’s slow pace of reimbursement and General Motors’ decision to begin fronting "clunkers" repayments to its own salesmen. (Photo: AmericaJR.com) But with auto-industry forecasters predicting a cool 1 million […]
“Cash for Clunkers” Coming to a Close?
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The Obama administration plans to close the door on the politically popular and environmentally slipshod auto trade-in program known as "cash for clunkers," according to a report this afternoon in the Wall Street Journal: Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday he would disclose within two days updated figures on the program, including how much of […]
Crunching June Stimulus Numbers: Roads Create Pricier Jobs Than Transit
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Transportation spending under the economic stimulus law created close to 15,000 jobs in June, or three times as many as were created in May, according to estimates released today by the U.S. DOT. (Photo: Cleveland Plain Dealer) Those numbers are bound to hearten Obama administration officials who have defended the stimulus’ 6-percent investment in infrastructure […]
Transit Cuts Report Underscores Cities’ Congressional Influence Gap
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In a report released this morning, Transportation for America (T4A) expands on its months-long effort to map transit cutbacks across the nation and concludes that 10 of the largest 25 local agencies are being forced to hike fares by more than 13 percent. (Photo: T4A) T4A’s report illustrates the punishing effect of such cuts on […]
Tracking Transport Subsidies: As Tough as Following the Stimulus Money
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The $787 billion economic stimulus effort was intended to be a model of government transparency — but a privately run website called Recovery.org soon began beating out the government in the race to trace federal dollars. Now, as the Pew Charitable Trusts begins to expand its Subsidyscope fiscal monitoring project, some similar gaps in spending […]
Could Ending the ‘War on Drugs’ Help Ease Urban Budget Crises?
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Despite talk of a nascent economic recovery, the brutal toll exacted on state budgets by the recession continues — with palpable consequences for transit riders and already lower-income urbanites. Could the cure for cities’ fiscal woes be a dramatic shift in drug policy? A class on dispensary management in Oakland, where drug sales are taxed […]
Could Electric-Car Tax Credits Become the Next “Cash for Clunkers”?
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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. (Photo: MPR) But could the administration continue to leave the gas tax untouched while relying on taxpayer-subsidized rebates […]
Report: Boxer ‘Sympathetic to’ Backers of More Climate Money for Transit
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As Senator Barbara Boxer 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. Senate environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) (Photo: Politics Now) […]
Obama Administration Touts Nation’s First All-Electronic Toll Road in N.C.
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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. The scene at yesterday’s N.C. toll road groundbreaking. (Photo: WRAL) The highway was financed by a package of […]
Transport Construction Industry Mobilizes for Oberstar’s Bill
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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. (Image: ARTBA) The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA), which represents major construction companies, released a bulletin to members today urging them to connect […]
Ed Glaeser’s Rail Fail
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The story so far: Ed Glaeser recently began an effort to assess the costs and benefits of constructing high-speed rail lines at the New York Times’ Economix blog. Last week, he posted his first substantive take on the issue, an attempt to estimate direct costs and benefits from a hypothetical line between Houston and Dallas. […]