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Obama victory promises to greatly impact transportation
11/05/2008
Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States will
have wide-ranging effects on the nation’s energy and transportation
policies, as he has pledged to increase funding for infrastructure and
alternative energy development and to make efficiency standards more
stringent.
According to Obama’s campaign platform, he will
“strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate the
commercialization of plug‐in hybrids, promote development of commercial
scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency, invest in low
emissions coal plants, advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel
infrastructure, and begin transition to a new digital electricity
grid.”
Obama plans on implementing a cap-and-trade system to
reduce carbon emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, increasing
fuel economy standards 4% each year and mandating that all new vehicles
are flexible fuel vehicles. He supports a 100% auction that will ensure
all industries pay for all emissions they release, with $15 billion of
the money raised from allowances going towards clean energy development
and energy efficiency improvements.
“Advances in biofuels,
including cellulosic ethanol, biobutenol and other new technologies
that produce synthetic petroleum from sustainable feedstocks offer
tremendous potential to break our addiction to oil,” the campaign said.
“Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work to ensure that these clean
alternative fuels are developed and incorporated into our national
supply as soon as possible.”
Obama has opposed opening currently
closed areas to oil exploration and drilling, instead calling for
opening the Strategic Petroleum Reserves to help increase supply.
However, he has not spoken extensively on the topic since prices have
fallen more than 50% in the past six weeks.
"The ATA (American
Trucking Assns.) looks forward to working with the new administration
on important issues affecting the trucking industry, including
infrastructure expansion, high energy costs, highway safety
improvements and environmental progress,” said ATA president & CEO
Bill Graves. “The essential trucking industry will be a key to economic
recovery, just as it has been a key to economic expansion in the past.”
The
President-elect has supported the development of a high-speed rail
network, encouraging the increase of domestic rail freight capacity and
proposing a National Infrastructure Reinvestment bank to expand and
enhance existing federal transportation investments.
“This
independent entity will be directed to invest in our nation’s most
challenging transportation infrastructure needs,” the campaign said.
“The Bank will receive an infusion of federal money, $60 billion over
10 years, to provide financing to transportation infrastructure
projects across the nation. These projects will create up to two
million new direct and indirect jobs and stimulate approximately $35
billion per year in new economic activity.”
In a National Public
Radio interview during the campaign, Obama said “No doubt we have to
invest more in our infrastructure. You see it in rural communities
around the country, where bridges and roads are not being kept
up…That’s why I put forward a $60 billion infrastructure investment
plan, which would be financed, in part, by bringing an end to the war
in Iraq. I’m also very interested in taking a look at innovations all
around the country to deal with improvements in mass transit and reduce
congestion… The basic notion that we should do what we can to reduce
congestion, to reduce pollution, to reduce consumption of foreign oil
and to then to reinvest dollars into our infrastructure in mass
transit.”
By Justin Carretta, online news editor
Fleet Owner, By Justin Carretta, online news editor, Nov 5, 2008 12:17 PM, http://fleetowner.com/management/obama_impact_energy_transportation_1105/