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May 5, 2008 When we asked last week which idea made better sense, suspending the federal gas tax for the summer (proposed by Senators John McCain and Hillary Clinton) or investing in rail transport (Senator Barack Obama's counter-proposal) the response from the Apollo nation was near-unanimous. A resounding no to the gas tax, and a clear yes to rail and other transportation alternatives. High Speed Trains Needed Now, Or At Least As Soon As Possible A summer tax holiday is not sensible. In NY when this has been done in the past, the oil companies raised prices to equal the tax relief. A tax holiday also starves funds from the already decrepit infrastructure. What we really need is investment in high speed transit rail and in local light rail. We also need much higher CAFﾉ standards that apply to all non-commercial vehicles. This can in part be boosted by making the X car prize larger and better promoted. Heavy truck traffic may have to be separated from car traffic to help make smaller more fuel efficient vehicles safe. The size disparity has been used by Detroit for years to market unnecessarily large cars. We need to electrify as much of our transportation as possible. In 1956, Congress adopted the national Interstate Highway system. The 46,837-mile system was designed to supplement the existing U.S. highway system, which was established in 1925. Now we need a national, or indeed North American high speed rail system that will supplement our steam-era private rail system. Senator Obama's got it right: Public investment in new rail initiatives is the way to go, along with promoting a greener economy and cleaner energy sources. I would like to see high-speed rail developed as an option to shorter-haul air travel in the US. I also oppose fuel tax holidays because that only gives a false sense of savings and strains further our ability to maintain necessary infrastructure. We desperately need better trains in this country, and cannot afford to wait any longer. it is absurd that the U.S. has been so severely depleted by leaders who have hated the rail system. Upgrading trains and tracks could create more jobs. Trains can help connect and create communities. Whatever it takes, we need them now! I live in Vermont, and took a 2 1/2 week train trip across Canada on VIA Rail, from Montreal to Vancouver, and then Amtrak down through Washington, Oregon, and California and back across. VIA was great: Informative, engaging, friendly, good food, interesting people. Amtrak was far less so, unfortunately. They need help and support,which we can offer! I've been following the Apollo Alliance for several years now, and am thrilled with its philosophy, logic, activism and success. I agree with Obama. I think that the railways are one of our most promising transportation alternatives. Much of the infrastructure is already in place. In fact, the thousands and thousands of miles of unused tracks and abandoned rail stations across the country are a huge wasted resource. I am in favor of creating modernized, convenient "green" mass transit systems in every county and community. I think it's even important enough to be subsidized, at least initially, by the government. Modernizing our rail system with high speed trains and providing regular, reliable train service from town to town (not just big city to big city), as well as local electric passenger vans and buses to and from train depots, would take a huge petro load off of this country. Perhaps laws could be restructured to allow, invite, and encourage airline companies to participate in railroad revitalization. Hey! The Europeans Got Something Going On I was delighted to read of the Obama statement about investment in rail. It is astounding that this is not the first thing that comes to the minds of the candidates - even McCain. The Europeans feel the $113 per barrel cost of oil far less on the highway because they have kept the cost of highway fuels high through taxes which go to finance many aspects of their society, and tends to more closely cover the external costs of automobiles and trucks. Traveling in Europe is possible - without a car - and gives an American a unique view of a world where “transit oriented development” tends to come about through economic incentive, not regulation per se. While our highway infrastructure is desperately in need, its finance should come from direct assessment of its principal beneficiaries through taxes and tolls. The rail network - when upgraded - should maintain a public component equal to the public investment. No gifts to the CSXs please! I live in Germany, where the rail system is of course much more advanced than it is in the U.S. but where the government is hell-bent-for-leather on privatizing (and thereby, likely, destroying) it. At the moment I live in Bavaria, which in terms of public transportation is only two baby steps ahead of most suburban U.S. towns. We don't need a car to buy a quart of milk, but we do need it for almost anything else. However, I lived in Berlin for several years, and Berlin has a public transportation system that should be the envy of every U.S. city. An interconnected subway, suburban railway, tram and bus system, all available 20 hours a day (plus a night bus system for the other 4 hours) cost about $100 a month for those who buy an annual pass. That is now so much less than filling up the car, taking public transportation is a no-brainer. Of course in the U.S. it will involve a huge investment to set up the infrastructure, but with a little bit of common sense we can connect the suburbs to the city and each other with light rails or electric trams, and make shopping easier with electric buses and tax breaks for small shops that set up in neighborhoods where there are no essential goods to be had within two square miles. We could also use the $9 billion in the federal taxes we'll collect over the summer to create a network of bike paths to make it easier to get around sprawling neighborhoods. Answer: Change Driving Habits, Ride A Bike Even though I drive -- although rarely -- I have found a bicycle to work quite well. My feet work well too. I think gas prices and gas taxes should go up and up and up and up and ad infinitum. Someday people might get the idea that a car is a nice thing, but there are so many other options: Sharing cars, joining something like ZipCar, doing errands with others. Picking up odds and ends for others. My parents told me that if you're going anywhere that's five miles or less, walk! There is a very simple way to reduce gas consumption, global warming, and pollution. It is a known fact that stop and go driving and high speed driving consume more gas and produce more pollution and heat than cruising at a steady, moderate speed. Some roads now use traffic lights timed to its legal speed limit. This allows the intelligent driver to cruise along with hardly any stops for red lights. It should be installed in all roads equipped with traffic lights. In fact it should also be installed in limited access highways which do not have lights now. It would reduce traffic jams and speeding. The only speeders would be emergency vehicles. and those morons who do not understand the benefits of this style of driving. What's The Incentive? Like the change in the Daylight Savings time, I suspect a temporary adjustment to the gas tax will have unexpected costs. No big deal though for the feds. Those costs will just be borne by the retail businesses that sell fuel to the public. Oh, and those road maintenance and repair operations funded by gas taxes? We should still be able to afford to send sympathy cards to the families of those killed by bridge collapses. Robbing Peter to pay Paul is sure evidence of being over-extended. What about incentives to refurbish all the existing cars and trucks already on the road to get better mileage? Wouldn't that be something indeed? Think about all the raw materials and energy costs we could save by reusing and retrofitting the existing vehicles. The gas tax vacation is the wrong message! It will only increase oil consumption, and indirectly postpone the urgency of developing new alternative energy sources. I hate to say it, but now that we are at about $4 a gallon people are realizing that there is no stopping the price escalation, and we all must do our share to reduce consumption. Also imagine the day we wake up in the morning and gas is back to its taxed price. Politicians will be pressured to continue with the tax vacation and the result will hurt us all. I don't think there should be a gas tax relief because it would just create a false sense of security and increase consumption. If they cannot renew the energy policy and are willing to let sustainable industries die in favor of big oil, then it is telling of a suicidal government. Can people be so far in denial that they don't believe a peak oil scenario exists, let alone the effects that all previous consumption has left us on the planet? It sounds like deep down inside they ( we ) don't care. Maybe the truth is based on population density as it is and the technological standard of living most of us have and are truly dependent on cannot be reversed. At least in time to intercept the myriad of interconnected problems. Maybe they are planning on the asteroid theory of impending destruction so why bother wasting time on a solution. What ever the reason(s) maybe it comes down to a unified political will. If Germany and Japan can do it, it is hard to believe we cannot. Maybe we have to come to the crossroads those countries experienced in order to change. I am strongly opposed to a summer gas tax moratorium. Our infrastructure needs the money the tax brings in. Also the amount most drivers would save is modest compared to the damage it could do. The moratorium could, in fact, make the problem worse because it could encourage people to drive more. Professional drivers (truckers, taxi drivers) are the only people who need to receive some special help. More Public Transit We've known since our LA freeway experience in the 50's that freeways don't do the job of moving people, while leading to road expansion and more cars being moved. Light rail is the answer for commuter travel and CO2 problems. People know. The gas tax holiday is a gimmick. Better public transportation is a real approach to some solution. Trains that can use tracks and rights of way already established would be good, and could be implemented more quickly into rural areas where railroads have been established and yet are fading.Trolley destruction should be reversed. Bus lines have been dropped from rural areas and old train lines could be re-used to help people reach population centers from places where there is no public transport. There must be some way to get this going immediately while we develop high tech improvements in efficiency and grace. I live in a very rural area where there are still working rail lines, but rarely any traffic on them. The bus service between small towns has been dropped and so more traffic is forced onto the highways, and we have more pollution and expense from all that traffic. Here in Johnson City, Tennessee at the end of the century, there were two rail lines. One was an excursion line to Cox Lake to the northeast side of town. The other ran the opposite direction to the Old Soldiers Home, now the VA hospital. The president of the Clinchfield Railroad built his home at that end of town and later deeded his land to the state to build a teacher's college when he moved railroad operations to another city following a squabble with the city fathers. This is now East Tennessee State University, and the area in between has come to be known as the Tree Streets, where most of the gracious old homes in the city are located. Although Johnson City was literally built by the railroads, the city fathers wasted no time in turning their backs on them. The street car lines defined the development areas of the city, but once roads were built, fanning out in all directions, all concept of orderly development and growth was abandoned. Today the city map looks like an octopus, straying into three different directions. In spite of federal mass transit subsidies the bus lines are limited to daylight hours and the city limits. That means there is no mass transit to the regional airport, which lies in the next county. For 30 years I've been preaching that transportation has to be an integrated system, as in Europe, where rail, bus, and air lines interconnect. Their schedules mesh, meaning when you step off the plane a tram is waiting to take you to a central terminal, where a train is waiting. If your stop is out in the country a bus is waiting. When you fly to a different city in America your only recourse is to rent a car or a high-priced taxi, even if your destination is only to a hotel in town. Editors note: More American metropolitan regions are connecting airports, suburbs, and downtowns with rail. These include Seattle, Portland, Chicago, Dallas, Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, New York, Washington. The federal government just approved an extension of Washington's Metro to Dulles Airport, 23 miles from center city. In my uneducated opinion a gas tax holiday is the dumbest thing I have heard of yet. The last thing we need to do is encourage people to drive more and everyone knows that is what will happen once we lower the price of gas. The American people have to understand that as part of the fight against global warming we have to make some very fundamental changes in how we all get around. To that end I would strongly support a very modern, efficient and well run rail system. It is embarrassing that the US is the only major country without an advanced rail system. I live in Springfield, Oregon. I should be able to hop on a high speed rail carrier, take an hour trip to Portland where I either use a very efficient mass transit system or maybe rent a plug-in vehicle to do my business and then take high speed rail back home. Instead I spend two hours or more on a packed I-5 just getting up there. This is a long uphill battle we are all facing when it comes to transportation and energy, and I have to say that I am not all that confident that we will win. And as a father and grandfather that makes me very sad. Gas Tax Holiday: The Real Cost Gas tax holiday? No. Terrible idea. It's only 18.5 cents/gallon. The money is needed for highway maintenance and reconstruction. There's no guarantee that the oil companies won't raise prices to make up the difference. There's no guarantee that Clinton's proposal will be passed, let alone passed in time to have any positive effect. Obama's right. This proposal is political pandering, plain and simple. I live in Clifton Park, New York, just north of Albany. The gas tax holiday is a bad idea. Just this morning, on NPR, there was commentary by those who had looked at what happened to prices the last time there was a gas tax holiday in my area. Prices were actually higher in Albany, where they had the gas tax holiday, than in Rensselaer, where they did not. Gas prices do not go down. Big Oil gets more money. Our infrastructure suffers from the depletion of revenue lost from the tax holiday. The McClain/Clinton plans seem like pandering for votes. The Obama plan is something that needs to be accomplished. The sooner it is started, the better off our country will be. Taking a gas tax holiday is insanity. We need as many transportation alternatives as possible. There are a lot of us trying to get around and making any other choice than to do it by car is only possible in certain areas, for certain trips. Why don't we have a decent rail system? Our airports are overcrowded, miserable places. A trip up the coasts would be a lot more feasible if it didn't take a day and more. We'd save fuel, hassle, and keep a lot of CO2 out of the atmosphere. What About Leadership? The notion of cutting the gas tax is a misguided failure in leadership. It may not be pleasant, but Americans are bright enough to recognize that peak oil is game-changing when given the facts. We don't need a token gift of condolence. We need strong leaders who are straightforward about the energy crisis we face. We need someone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and start working toward solutions. It is clear that the workforce for this century will require different skills than the generations who powered the decades of coal and iron and steel. Tomorrow’s workforce will measure success by advancing an economy which simultaneously sustains the prosperity of local and regional communities and the health of the earth’s vital environment. This shift will require not only resources, but creative energy and collaboration between leaders and workers in education, business and government. There is no time to waste. This may work to our collective advantage. If you want to rally people's support and drive change, then uniting them through a sense of urgency can be helpful. It worked in England during WWII. People were asked to work together to maintain order and survive through very difficult and frightening challenges. We need to help people feel connected and engaged by a broader vision that is so pervasive that they cannot avoid it. Thankfully, there is momentum building to support change. Think About Alternative Sources I'm glad to see the candidates supporting alternative energy, but home-generated solar deserves separate consideration from power purchased over transmission lines. And the best form of this in urban areas is grid-inter-tied distributed solar generation. But in order to be successful, the utilities must agree to reimburse the generators at the same rate that they pay for the electricity that they buy from the utility. This is called "net-metering". A federal law is needed to mandate this. I belong to a local cooperative of bio-diesel (BD) users here in Bremerton, Washington. I haven't been using BD in my truck lately and was interested in getting a tankful when I was dismayed to discover that the price had risen to more than $5.00/gallon. I had high hopes that once the BD plant in Aberdeen came online that the supply would improve and help control the costs of production and distribution. Seattle Biodiesel was the company that originally developed the plan for a 100 million gallon plant at Aberdeen and later reorganized as Imperium Renewables. Recently an article in the Seattle Times revealed that the bulk of the plant's production was being exported and not for local consumption. This is a business which receives the Federal tax credit for producing alternative fuel, and using that advantage to export a product which ought to be used to reduce emissions in Washington State, and help offset the import of oil and petroleum based fuels which are hard on both the environment and people's health. I can't even begin to speculate on the concessions that Gray's Harbor County and the City of Aberdeen may have made in return for the potential of having cleaner energy available. I understand the need to receive a reasonable return on an investment, and the need to help grow the company, however I am concerned this is the pattern now that will be followed. The maximization of profit is exclusive to the needs of community and defeats the purpose and intent of "going green" I am sorely disappointed in the behavior of this enterprise and disheartened that the future of a green America may be less about saving our planet than making obscene profits. Instead of removing the gas tax for a short time, which is a scam, the tax should increase substantially and the money used to promote and expand the use of renewable sources of energy. Not bio-fuels but wind, solar and ocean sources of energy. More help to promote and use hybrid cars. Hybrids could double gas mileage in a short period of time. Trains are a very good replacement for much of our airplane and truck transportation. The gas tax should be raised by 75 cents a gallon and the money used for the most practical efforts to reduce our demand on oil in the short and long term. Incentives, either rebates or tax reductions, should be provided to business and individuals to make choices in helping to reduce consumption and increase efficiency. Those who make energy conservation choices would most likely save the increase while wasteful, excessive users would bear the brunt of the increase –as it should be. Fast track funding should be made available for stepped up alternative fuels research and light rail introduction into areas that would realize the greatest fuel savings. Diesel fuel should have taxes eliminated entirely which might help in lowering costs of goods being impacted by higher transportation costs. Cleaner,greener, and "leaner" (less costly) fuel research/production should be fast tracked for the freight delivery industry giving truckers and consumers long term financial benefits. The problem with creating new energy policies every few years is that our policies tend to be reactive rather than proactive. Europe is far ahead of the United States in green building and renewable energy because they have an almost 50% tax on oil that is invested in green building and renewable energy research and application. The high price of fuel there also makes renewable energy more competitive. As a result of this country's first vehicle fuel economy standards and the first renewable energy and energy efficiency tax incentives enacted during the Carter administration we reduced our national energy use by 14 percent over 10 years while we grew our GNP by 94 percent, during a period when mortgage interest ranged from 12-20%. This reduction in demand led to a twenty year period of low oil prices. People are amazed when they learn of the high performance that it is possible to achieve in green buildings. Green buildings are high performance buildings. They perform better with regards to energy use, but they also create better conditions so that the building inhabitants perform better with increased productivity and reduced absenteeism. We are seeing once again what a precipitous rise in fuel prices can do to stifle economic growth. Though the rise in price reduces demand just as it did in the 70's when gas prices doubled in 18 months, it does so at a terrible cost to our economy.
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