BAF IN THE NEWS:
Politico Morning Transportation
http://www.politico.com/morningtransportation/0813/morningtransportation11447.html
Blaze on: Infrastructure advocacy group Building America’s Future sure is happy about the new Oregon law. “Like many other states, Oregon has grown weary waiting for Congress to pass a robust and long-term transportation bill and instead is blazing its own trail,” BAF Co-Chairman Ed Rendell said. “I am hopeful that Congress is paying close attention to what is happening in the states and will embrace some of these innovative solutions at the federal level.”
Politico: If Congress won't lead, states and cities will
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/if-congress-wont-lead-states-and-cities-will-95493.html
Americans cringe at Washington’s dysfunction, and rightly so: This Congress could become the least effective one in decades. Partisan divides are keeping much-needed solutions to immigration, education reform, and deficit reduction out of reach. So it’s not surprising that state and local leaders across the country are bypassing Washington and charting their own course for action.
National Geographic: Rising Seas
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2013/09/rising-seas/folger-text
By the time Hurricane Sandy veered toward the Northeast coast of the United States last October 29, it had mauled several countries in the Caribbean and left dozens dead. Faced with the largest storm ever spawned over the Atlantic, New York and other cities ordered mandatory evacuations of low-lying areas. Not everyone complied. Those who chose to ride out Sandy got a preview of the future, in which a warmer world will lead to inexorably rising seas.
Trucking Info: Can Foxx Put the Pieces Together?
When my daughter was small, she had a “transportation puzzle,” a simple wooden puzzle with pieces representing a variety of cars, trucks, planes, trains and boats.
Heartland.org: The Obvious Solution to the Transportation Funding Crisis
Congress adjourned for the summer with neither the House nor the Senate passing Fiscal Year 2014 appropriations for transportation. The House bill ($44 billion) lacked the votes to pass it because some fiscally conservative Republicans abstained, feeling that the cuts weren't deep enough. The Senate bill ($54 billion) failed to obtain the necessary 60 votes because it exceeded the Budget Control Act levels -- the legislation that put in place the sequester cuts and requires Congress to meet previously agreed-upon spending levels.
NATIONAL NEWS:
Bloomberg: Rail-Truck Shipments Reveal Holiday Sales Clues: EcoPulse
Holiday sales are poised to rise from last year, based on the current volume of goods transported primarily by both truck and rail.
Better Cities & Towns: Five hundred complete streets policies approved
http://bettercities.net/article/five-hundred-complete-streets-policies-approved-20390
The public demand for "complete streets" remains strong as the 500th policy at the state and local level throughout the US was recently enacted, the National Complete Streets Coalition reports.
Next City: Detroit Losing Money from Reverse Commuters Who Don’t Pay Income Taxes
National reporters have cooled off on the Detroit beat. They rolled into town, wrote about the strengthening downtown core, sprinkled in some wire photographs of blight on the east side and decamped for their home bureaus, where they file the occasional dispatch with a canned quote from Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr.
NPR: The Next Disaster Scenario Power Companies Are Preparing For
In the 10 years since sagging power lines in Ohio sparked a blackout across much of the Northeastern United States and Canada, utility engineers say they have implemented measures to prevent another such event in the country's electric grid.
STATE NEWS:
New York Times: Bolt Problem Won’t Delay San Francisco Bridge’s Opening
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/bolt-problem-wont-delay-san-francisco-bridges-opening.html?_r=0
SAN FRANCISCO — The new eastern half of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge will open to traffic the first week of September after all, state transportation officials announced Thursday, reversing an earlier decision to delay the opening for months after defective earthquake safety bolts were found.
New York Times: A Federal Program to Ease Congestion at Border Crossings
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/16/us/a-federal-program-to-ease-congestion-at-border-crossings.html
LAREDO — Pedestrians waited in a long line on the bridge between Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and this South Texas city one recent day, as one vehicle after another in slow procession was inspected by United States Customs and Border Protection officials.
New York Times: Could Outmoded Phone Booths Become E.V. Charging Stations?
http://wheels.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/could-outmoded-phone-booths-become-e-v-charging-stations/
Consider New York’s public pay telephones. They may be outdated in the digital age, but they have telephone wiring and are often supplied with electricity. More important, they already occupy precious city real estate — and already have the permits necessary to stay there. Is it possible to imagine some of them seamlessly replaced with electric vehicle charging stations, with vital dedicated parking spaces?
Washington Post: AP: Delaware sea level rise committee meets for final time to discuss release of report
DOVER, Del. — Delawareans could soon see changes to a host of planning, construction, land use and environmental practices based on a report outlining the threat of rising sea levels on the state.
Washington Post: AP: Problem-plagued, much delayed San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge span to open around Labor Day
OAKLAND, Calif. — Despite broken earthquake-safety bolts that threatened months of delays, California transportation officials approved a plan Thursday to open the new eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge around the Labor Day weekend as originally planned.
Railway Age: BNSF: $335 million in capex for Montana, North Dakota
BNSF plans to invest an estimated $335 million to improve and expand rail capacity in North Dakota and Montana this year.
Jacksonville Business Journal: CSX to build $8 million facility in Hamlet, N.C.
http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2013/08/15/csx-to-build-8-million-facility-in.html
CSX plans to build an $8 million facility in Hamlet, N.C., to manufacture railroad turnouts for its eastern U.S. rail system, the Richmond County Daily Journal reported.
Kansas City Business Journal: Streetcar expansion may face long, tough road
http://www.bizjournals.com/kansascity/news/2013/08/15/streetcar-expansion-doubts.html
The Kansas City Council opened up the conversation about expanding its planned 2.2-mile streetcar route on Thursday and began to ask how the extension routes will be judged and who will pay for them.
NRDC Switchboard: Reconsidering Seaside, Florida
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/kbenfield/reonsidering_seaside_florida.html
I’m hardly the only one whose career was strongly influenced by the now-iconic planned town of Seaside, on Florida’s Panhandle coast. If I hadn’t run across an article about Seaside, designed by new urbanist stalwarts Duany Plater-Zyberk – and, around the same time, visionary architect Peter Calthorpe’s book about transit-oriented development – I’m not sure what I would be doing now. I had been concerned about suburban sprawl as an environmental catastrophe, but I didn’t have a good answer.
Transportation Nation: Parking Concerns Lead D.C. to Tweak Future M Street Bike Lane
The protected bike lane would run west along M Street and in front of the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, which is on the right. The protected bike lane would run west along M Street and in front of the Metropolitan A.M.E. Church, which is on the right. (Google Street View)
A new bike lane will be installed along D.C.'s M Street later this year. But after a local church voiced concerns about parking, one block of the lane will lose its protective bollards.
Politico Morning Transportation
By Adam Snider | 8/16/13 5:49 AM EDT
Featuring Kathryn A. Wolfe and Kevin Robillard
MULTIPRONGED PORT APPROACH: Washington Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell have an ambitious and multipronged plan to boost port spending. Announced in Seattle yesterday, it includes increasing spending by ending the tax benefits for major oil and gas companies, replacing the current harbor maintenance tax with a “Maritime Goods Movement User Fee” and stopping Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund money from being diverted to other purposes. The new user fee would target shippers who avoid the current harbor tax by shipping to ports in Canada and Mexico and then moving goods into the United States on rail or trucks, doubling the money for ports. The bill won’t be formally introduced until September, when lawmakers return from the recess. Check out a one-page summary (http://1.usa.gov/16pIDOw) and there’s more in my Pro story: http://politico.pro/16plFHp
NTSB UPDATES ON THE UPS CRASH: The UPS plane that crashed in Alabama, killing the two pilots, appears not to have had an engine fire or other internal engine failure before the fatal accident, the NTSB said in its second on-scene media update. But the plane’s engine did ingest dirt and debris from trees, NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt told reporters, which is consistent with evidence that it struck treetops as it went down. Some eyewitnesses reported that the plane was on fire before it crashed, and others reported hearing the engine sputter. The information NTSB released doesn’t completely dismiss either scenario. The engine may not have caught fire before the crash, but its cargo could have. Investigators were working last night on the black boxes recovered from the site (http://bit.ly/1eNRMPZ).
WAIT AND SEE: A judge in New York adjourned a hearing on the American Airlines bankruptcy without resolution, and both parties have until Aug. 23 to file briefs saying arguing for or against the US Airways merger being approved in spite of the pending DOJ suit.
Hope you like lawyers: @ScottGordonNBC5: “@AmericanAir bankruptcy hearing ready to start after break. 77 lawyers on conference call in addition to those in courtroom.”
WOO-HOO, IT’S FRIDAY! Thanks for reading POLITICO’s Morning Transportation, your daily tipsheet on trains, planes and automobiles. Back to the Future made the distinctive DeLorean famous — but 29 years ago today, the car’s father, John Z. DeLorean, was acquitted of eight drug trafficking charges in Los Angeles: http://bit.ly/16S7zwr. Please do be in touch: asnider@politico.com. And follow on Twitter: @AdamKSnider or @POLITICOPro.
“I got my head shaved by a jumbo jet …” http://bit.ly/1426b9Z
** A message from POWERJobs: New jobs on our radar this week: Network Designer at The Boeing Company, Optical Sensor Modeling Engineer at TASC and Business Analyst at Evolver. Interested? Apply to these jobs and more at POWERJobs.com; finally, a career site made for YOU! **
GOLDEN STATE VS. UNCLE SAM, TRANSIT EDITION: Get ready for 9,742,611 of the battle between the feds and a state government. Moody’s is reviewing $6.5 billion in debt held by 15 transit agencies in California, with a downgrade possible (http://bit.ly/1cGeLAX). The problem: The transit agencies might not get federal grants because of a new state pension law that conflicts with federal transit rules ensuring collective bargaining for employees before getting a grant. The Los Angeles County MTA has put together a list of the specific grants at risk (http://politico.pro/1dc0QAn) and a timeline of future actions (http://politico.pro/15LKxmj).
STATES WANT MONEY FOR FUEL TAX ALTERNATIVES: Fresh off Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber inking a law letting some drivers opt for a VMT instead of the gas tax, the National Conference of State Legislatures is asking the feds to create a $20 million fund to help states experiment with alternatives to gas taxes. The resolution (http://bit.ly/16eZely), which passed yesterday at the NCSL's annual conference in Atlanta, was sponsored by Oregon GOP state Sen. Bruce Starr. No more than $2 million should be given to any single state as part of the fund. With a the looming Highway Trust Fund bankruptcy, top transport voices in Congress have said Uncle Sam could learn a thing or two from the states.
THIS WEEKEND’S METRO WORK: It’s a smooth weekend on Metro compared to some of the track closures of recent months. The Orange and Blue lines have trains every 24 minutes but the Red, Green and Yellow lines run as normal. No stations are closed. WMATA: http://bit.ly/13nhXgI
TEENS DON’T LET TEENS DRIVE TEENS: As part of yesterday’s back-to-school safety push, the NTSB tweeted that parents should “Restrict your teen driver from carrying other teens & prohibit them from using portable devices while driving.” Why’s that? Teen drivers are statistically less safe with other teens in the car. Half of car crashes involving 16-year-old drivers with three or more other teens in the car are speeding-related, according to a recent GHSA study.
WELCOME BACK, CARPER: The Amtrak board of directors formally welcomed back Tom Carper yesterday after his pre-recess Senate confirmation for another five-year term. Eight of the board’s nine seats are now filled. “Amtrak remains a critical component of national transportation infrastructure and it plays a vital role connecting communities and providing passengers with convenient access to job centers thus enhancing regional economies,” Carper said.
THE AUTOBAHN (SPEED READ)
- Maine Rep. and T&I member Mike Michaud, co-sponsor of the truck weight increase bill, will leave Congress to run for governor. Roll Call: http://bit.ly/143OrLz
- It’s no Metro baby, but a woman gave birth on I-270 in Germantown yesterday. WaPo: http://wapo.st/18yO2R5
- Advertised MPG on the Ford C-Max adjusted downward. EPA: http://1.usa.gov/16qNwH6
- Amtrak brings the “quiet car” to the Wolverine line that connects Detroit and Chicago. MLive: http://bit.ly/1dc266q
- A4A has hired United’s Don Dillman as managing director of flight operations. http://bit.ly/13p9CsS
- There’s a police officer bike hero in San Francisco, and he’s getting some love from two-wheeling residents who’ve lost their ride. Atlantic Cities: http://bit.ly/13Eda5p
EXPANDING THE EMPIRE: Pro just keeps getting bigger. Morning Education is up and running and agriculture- and trade-focused lines are coming soon. We’ve hired Doug Palmer from Reuters to be a senior trade reporter. Also on board: Ag and trade editor Jason Huffman, formerly editor in chief of Food Chemical News; agriculture reporters Bill Tomson from Dow Jones, Helena Bottemiller from Food Safety News, Jenny Hopkinson from Inside Washington Publishers and POLITICO’s excellent Tarini Parti; trade reporter Eric Bradner from the Evansville Courier & Press; education editor Nirvi Shah from Education Week; and education reporters Stephanie Simon from Reuters, Libby Nelson from Inside Higher Ed and POLITICO’s Caitlin Emma. More hires are coming — stay tuned!
THE COUNTDOWN: DOT funding and passenger rail policy both run out in 46 days. Surface transportation policy is up in 411 days and FAA policy in 776 days. The mid-term elections are in 455 days.
CABOOSE — Bikes of yore: MT’s love of old pictures has skewed toward cars and trains, so here’s two century-old bike pics to keep the intermodal bona fides. Check out the sweet exterior of the Rambler Biclorama in Auckland (http://bit.ly/16LnPgR) and the interior of a different bike shop in Christchurch (http://bit.ly/13ZCsP7).
**A message from POWERJobs: Tap into the power of POWERJOBS for the newest job opportunities in the Washington area from the area’s top employers, including TASC, Visa, METRO and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld. Powered by names you trust — POLITICO, WTOP, WJLA/ABC-TV, NewsChannel 8 and Federal News Radio — POWERJOBS is the ultimate career site with more than 2 million job searches and nearly 17,000 applications submitted this year so far. Connect through Facebook or LinkedIn, search jobs by industry and set up job-specific email alerts using POWERJobs.com, the site for Washington’s top talent. **
Politico Pro: Murray, Cantwell announce bill to fund ports
By Adam Snider | 8/15/13 1:44 PM EDT
Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell want to hike spending on the nation’s ports by ending the tax benefits for major oil and gas companies, part of a multi-pronged approach they’re announcing Thursday.
Legislation the two Washington state Democrats are planning would also replace the current harbor maintenance tax with a “Maritime Goods Movement User Fee” and end the years of Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund money being diverted to other purposes.
It’s an ambitious proposal to address what many in Congress call a chronic underinvestment in U.S. ports.
The new user fee would target shippers who avoid the current harbor tax by shipping to ports in Canada and Mexico and then moving goods into the United States on rail or trucks. It would “double the amount of funds available for American ports, which will help our export economy thrive,” according to a one-page summary of the bill from Murray’s office.
The current tax system is unfair and obsolete, she says.
“That means fewer cargo containers coming into our ports. It means less work for longshoremen and pilots. And it means we can’t make investments in infrastructure that our ports need to be state-of-the-art and competitive,” she said in prepared remarks for a news conference Thursday in Seattle. “If that’s not a perfect example of an outdated law, I don’t know what is.”
On top of that lost revenue from shipments, a significant chunk of yearly receipts from the harbor tax is spent on other purposes. Port groups and members of Congress from both parties have been trying to ensure the entire amount is used on ports, including lawmakers like Reps. Charles Boustany (R-La.) and Janice Hahn (D-Calif.), who don’t normally agree on many issues.
The Murray-Cantwell bill would also set up a competitive grant program for intermodal connections at ports. Murray was the champion of the TIGER grant program, created in the 2009 stimulus, which has poured millions into port, road, rail and other projects around the country.
The senators’ proposal comes as the House Transportation Committee prepares to roll out its version of a water resources bill ahead of action next month. The Senate has already passed a bill that includes language designed to address the diversion issue.
Murray’s and Cantwell’s bill won’t be formally introduced until September, when lawmakers return from the recess.
Scott Wong contributed to this report.
BAF IN THE NEWS:
Politico Morning Transportation
http://www.politico.com/morningtransportation/0813/morningtransportation11447.html
Blaze on: Infrastructure advocacy group Building America’s Future sure is happy about the new Oregon law. “Like many other states, Oregon has grown weary waiting for Congress to pass a robust and long-term transportation bill and instead is blazing its own trail,” BAF Co-Chairman Ed Rendell said. “I am hopeful that Congress is paying close attention to what is happening in the states and will embrace some of these innovative solutions at the federal level.”