Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Gas Tax

Lawmakers Cross Party Lines on Transpo Funding as Debate Rages

By Elana Schor | Jul 15, 2009 | No Comments

An 18-month extension of existing transportation law cleared the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee today, but not before spirited debate on a proposal billed as a compromise with House members who remain strongly opposed to the Senate’s stopgap. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), chairman of the Senate environment committee (Photo: Politics Now) The "clean" re-upping of […]

Your Unlikely Reasonable Voice of the Day

By Elana Schor | Jun 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) is not known as a friend of green transportation — and that’s putting it mildly. GOP Rep. Don Young (AK) showed a flash of reason today. (Photo: Progressive Alaska) During his reign as House transportation committee chairman, Young passed a $283 billion bill that helped bloat the federal bureaucracy while steering […]

Steven Chu Forced to Recant Belief in Higher Gas Prices

By Ben Fried | Apr 24, 2009 | 1 Comment

The indignities are piling up for Steven Chu, the Nobel laureate Secretary of Energy whom environmentalists applauded as one of Obama’s best cabinet picks. His security detail won’t let the lifelong cyclist bike to work. And on Earth Day, he fielded questions like this one (via Talking Points Memo) during a House hearing on the […]

Regional Transportation Funding Problems Keep Getting Bigger

By Matthew Roth | Mar 26, 2009 | 5 Comments

In a sobering revision of the 25-year Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) at yesterday’s Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) meeting, MTC staff explained that the elimination of the State Transit Assistance (STA) fund and much lower than expected sales-tax revenues forced the planning body to significantly revise down its projections for operational spending and expansion projects (PDF). […]