(Source: Federal Computer Week)

The Transportation Department has established a special team to oversee the $48 billion it is slated to receive under the economic stimulus law, said Calvin Scovel, DOT’s inspector general. 

The Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery team would make sure that the department provides accountability and transparency for the massive amount of additional funding authorized by the law, Scovel said in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee’s Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Subcommittee today. 

However, dealing with that large infusion of money, which must be distributed quickly and with the limited staff resources available, will force the department to limit its focus on its mission of transportation safety, Scovel said.

DOT must balance the quick distribution of funds to create jobs with significant oversight of that money and the $70 billion the department spends annually on safety and mobility projects, he said. The stimulus funds would flow through existing DOT program spending, most of which is channeled to the states in the form of grants, he added.

(Source:  bizjournals.com; Photo courtesy: AndrewJ@Flickr)

AT&T Inc. announced Wednesday that it will spend more than half a billion dollars over the next 10 years on alternative-fuel vehicles.

The Dallas-based telecom giant (NYSE: ATT) will invest $565 million on about 15,000 vehicles over the next decade, including $350 million on 8,000 compressed natural gas vehicles — the largest investment in that vehicle type by an American company in history.

The remaining $215 million will be spent replacing more than 7,000 passenger cars with other fuel-efficient models.

“AT&T and other U.S. corporations have a unique opportunity to partner with the new administration as it works to lead the country out of this economic downturn,” said Randall Stephenson, chairman and chief executive officer of AT&T. “This investment is a first step on our part to help boost other industries while at the same time encouraging wider use and production of efficient vehicles and domestic fuel alternatives.”

Billing it as a way to not only go green but also create infrastructure and jobs in a flagging economy, AT&T said its spending will either create or save about 1,000 jobs each year for the next five years. Both the chassis manufacturing and the conversion to CNG will take place domestically.

Wide access to U.S. roads granted to Mexican trucks in NAFTA would be terminated. Critics cite safety concerns, but a spokesman for the Mexican Embassy calls it ‘protectionism, plain and simple.’

(Source: LA Times)

 (Source: National Post, Canada; Photo: bensonkua@ Flickr)

Organizers for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics have unveiled their $157-million transportation plan for the event.

(Source: GAO)

 The Department of Transportation received about $48 billion of recovery funds for investments in transportation infrastructure from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. As with other executive agencies, DOT is faced with the challenges of using these funds in ways that will aid economic recovery, making wise funding choices while spending the money quickly, and ensuring accountability for results. GAO will report to Congress bimonthly on how states and localities use the recovery funds received from DOT.

DOT and Congress will also be faced with numerous challenges as they work to reauthorize surface transportation and aviation programs.

Click here to read the HTML version of the entire report.  Or download the PDF file here. 

[ipaper id=13181892]

(Source:  PBS’ Blue Print America)

This afternoon I received a couple of alerts  from PBS’s Blue Print America.  There first report is about the Budgetary Issues facing transit agencies:   

As the economy has slumped, Americans have increasingly turned to mass transit, putting new pressure on transit agencies. In a new report for the “Blueprint America” series, correspondent Rick Karr examines the budgetary issues facing public transit.

Click here to view the video report. 

The second report focused on the subject of how the financial meldown has added to the woes of the transit agencies. The excerpt reads:

Amid the country’s economic crisis, some public transit agencies have found themselves linked to complex financial deals that have since soured. Rick Karr reports in the latest installment for the “Blueprint America” series on infrastructure on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

Click here to watch the video report.

(Source: Smart Growth America)

A detailed report titled, “Spending the Stimulus: How Your State Can Put Thousands Back to Work by Jumpstarting a 21st Century Transportation System” published by Smart Growth America (you can find the full report here) illustrates the breadth of investments that a state can make with the STP funds it receives through ARRA, by outlining 20 project types in 5 main categories, and providing an example for each.

The website says “Smart Growth America is launching an immediate, six-month campaign to support our state partners in shaping stimulus spending and state DOT budget decisions. The need and opportunity are clear. States and DOTs, asked to develop lists of “ready to go” projects, have developed lists that consist almost entirely of road and other conventional projects. Without this campaign, the stimulus money will likely fund destructive road expansion projects rather than providing a down payment on a clean, green transportation infrastructure for the 21st Century.

This campaign aims to:

1. Influence how state DOTs and governors spend the substantial amounts of money they receive from the federal government,
2. Hold the state DOTs and governors accountable on the stimulus spending; and
3. Increase the capacity of state advocacy groups for subsequent state, local, and federal campaign work.”

Click here to read the entire article.  Also click here to read a related write-up by our Sarah Goodyear, at Streetsblog.

 Transportgooru encourages readers to Donate to Smart Growth America today and help in furthering its mission and to ensure that the future for America is a bright one. Click the Donate button to proceed.

Attached is the detailed report called Spending the Stimulus published by Smart Growth America:

[ipaper id=13172497]

(Source: Streetsblog)

For our readers living in the greater Washington, DC metro area or planning to move there, the Urban Land Insititute has developed a slick tool that let’s you calcuclate the cost of housing and transportation for a given address/location in the metro region. The ULI website says ” The Terwilliger Housing + Transportation Calculator is a new tool designed to calculate combined housing and transportation costs in the greater Washington, D.C. region.”  

Click here to read a related article on Streetsblog.  Or click here to explore the tool.

(Source:  Bnet.com Auto)

When people use the word “tax” and the phrase “electric car” in the same sentence, they’re usually talking about the lucrative tax credits you can grab onto by buying one.

But there’s another way to look at the tax issue. Suppose, as many analysts are now concluding, the bulk of the car fleet shifts from gasoline to electric. Will we tax EV recharges the way we now tax gas (at 18.4 cents a gallon)? Dr. Lyle Dennis, whose website GM-Volt.com champions Chevrolet’s plug-in hybrid, asks, “Will they raise taxes on electric rates and make EV recharging more expensive? It’s an important question.”

It seems to make more sense to simply switch to a “vehicles miles traveled” tax that’s agnostic on how cars get around. Mileage could be tracked with GPS devices installed in cars. But that’s off the table for now. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said his department was studying the idea, but an Obama spokesman quickly denied it is now or ever will be U.S. policy.

Click here to read th eentire article.

(Source: Greenwire via New York Times)

A temporary hike to the federal gas tax and a controversial plan to charge Americans for every mile they drive will be part of the funding mix for future roadwork, the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee said today.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), whose committee is drafting the House bill that will finance the bulk of the nation’s surface transportation for the next six years, said because federal revenues from fuel taxes have fallen, his committee has no choice but to use new financing mechanisms to make up the difference.

“We will have multiple revenue sources as we go into the authorization period,” Oberstar told reporters today. “Vehicle miles traveled will be one.”

 Charging drivers a small fee for every mile they travel is “a more efficient, more effective, more beneficial way to generate revenues into the Highway Trust Fund because it will more accurately measure the effect on the roadways of congestion, of wear and tear on our road and bridge surfaces than a simple gas tax,” he added.

Click here to read the entire article.