Link to article here.

We agree wholeheartedly with the Farm Bureau’s assessment of TxDOT’s woefully inadequate DEIS for TTC-69. In fact, TURF’s comments are very similar. TxDOT’s failure to study ANY cumulative impacts of this massive corridor across the state is not only irresponsible, it’s ILLEGAL! If 391 commissions don’t stop it, looks like both TURF and the Farm Bureau will haul TxDOT into court to force them to comply with the law.

Texas Farm Bureau: “TxDOT’s Draft Environmental Impact Study will not withstand judicial scrutiny”
Southwest Farm Press
Mar 19, 2008
In comments filed with the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Texas Farm Bureau said the Draft Environmental Impact Study (DEIS) for the proposed I-69 corridor “would not withstand judicial scrutiny.”

Under the terms of the National Environmental Policy Act, these detailed environmental studies are conducted under rules developed by the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ).

According to the farm organization’s comments, the failure of the DEIS to consider the environmental impact of using existing rights-of-way–rather than a single minded focus on building a completely new route–means the study could not hold up in court. Current law and actual practice in the only other state, Indiana, to file a DEIS on the massive interstate project dictate that existing rights-of-way be considered. Indiana’s DEIS did, in fact, consider existing rights-of-way.

“The completely new route, of course, would be the most disruptive in terms of displacing families and impacting the environment,” said Kenneth Dierschke, president of Texas Farm Bureau. “Once again, it seems that TxDOT is trying to influence policy rather than implementing it, this time by pretending that there is only one way to build the Texas portion of I-69.”

Another problem, according to the document submitted by TFB, is the insistence by TxDOT and FHWA that I-69 be “multimodal,” complete with space for separate truck lanes, rail and a multi-purpose utility corridor. The Farm Bureau charges that the two agencies have failed to demonstrate the need for this kind of space-eating approach.

“I-69, as proposed, will pass through seven states. Of these, Texas is the only one to mention, let alone require, a multimodal corridor in connection with I-69,” Dierschke said.

Dierschke said the state needs additional highways but Farm Bureau is concerned about the lost farm and ranch land along the proposed route. That, he said, is another flaw in the DEIS. According to the TFB document, farmland loss was not considered in the DEIS, as required by federal law.

“There doesn’t appear to be any effort to minimize the loss of farm and ranch lands or the productive capacity that might be lost,” Dierschke said.

The Farm Bureau document suggests that many problems arise from the intent to include I-69–not only in the federal corridor that includes seven states–but in the controversial Trans-Texas Corridor as well. The TTC is most often described as multimodal, requiring more space.

“We have to wonder if the rest of the TTC is getting this kind of half-hearted scrutiny,” Dierschke said. “We hope TxDOT and FHWA are approaching this planning phase with an open mind, but their efforts suggest otherwise.”

Link to article here. Considering most toll roads in Texas are taking twice the footprint as keeping them freeways, now is not the time to build excessively large, more expensive toll roads that fewer and fewer people can afford.

EPA Corrective Action: Limit transportation projects to those that don’t create more pollution.

Solution: No 20 lane MEGA toll road on 281 (or elsewhere) that will only increase car and truck emissions.

Knowing TXDOT, it will promote the TTC and toll roads as the Holy Grail to relieve congestion and pollution…not so! Take a look at TxDOT’s vision of congestion relief. Toll roads DO NOT solve congestion.

Air rules cloud future for S.A.
03/13/2008
By Anton Caputo
Express-News

Federal regulators strengthened the nation’s air quality regulations Wednesday, likely putting hundreds of new communities including San Antonio on the nation’s bad air list, but falling short of what environmental groups and the federal government’s own scientific advisers wanted.The long-awaited decision by the Environmental Protection Agency tightened ground-level ozone pollution standards from 84 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion. The change means communities like San Antonio, which has had average ozone readings of 82 parts per billion over the past three years, will have to come up with plans to control pollution or face federal measures.

Local and state officials had been lobbying hard against the change, arguing the medical science behind the stronger standard was not justified. They also contend communities like San Antonio will have a hard time determining their own destiny because pollution often is blown in from other parts of the state and country.

“First of all, I think we’re the only major American city that is meeting the 84 standard,” Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff said. “I don’t know how they expect us to meet 75. I’m just real concerned that it’s a big overreaction that is really not going to do anything for anybody other than cause an economic hardship.”

The federal government won’t compile its new list of failing counties until 2010. At that time, local leaders will have three years to formulate a plan to lower pollution.

Communities that fail are required to take pollution-control steps such as vehicle-emission testing and installing vapor recovery systems at gas stations.

Many also have been required to institute a pollution program that makes it difficult for industry to expand. Road projects can be affected because local transportation planners have to prove the projects won’t create more pollution before spending federal highway funds.

Peter Bella of the Alamo Area Council of Governments said he would continue to work with area cement companies and other industry to voluntarily reduce pollution. But he said it was unlikely that voluntary measures would net the kind of improvements needed.

“It’s going to be real challenging,” he said. “There are no two ways about it.”

Joe Stanko, a Washington-based attorney who represents the power industry, said Wednesday’s decision probably will set off a flurry of lawsuits.

“Various industries are likely to sue because they believe the standards are too stringent,” he said. “The environmental community may sue because it was looking for the standards to be even lower.”

Ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, is formed when pollutants from vehicles, industrial plants and other sources bake in the hot sun.

It’s a lung irritant that has been linked to asthma attacks, reduced lung function and other ailments.

The EPA’s own scientific advisory board had recommended setting the standard at 70 parts per billion or lower, a recommendation shared by a federal advisory panel on children’s health. But EPA administrator Stephen Johnson, who said he also was bombarded by politicians and industry representatives asking for no change at all, decided on the 75 parts per billion.

“It doesn’t make anybody happy,” former EPA administrator Jeff Holmstead said. “He was trying to thread the needle between what the environmental groups wanted and what the business community was hoping for.”

Regulators estimate as many as 345 counties nationally will fail to meet the new standard when the federal agency compiles its official list in 2010. The San Antonio region includes Bexar, Comal and Guadalupe counties.

Federal regulators believe that by 2020, the number of failing counties will fall to 28.

They expect the health benefit of the new standard to be substantial. Based on a number of studies, the EPA reports, the new standards will help avoid as many as 2,300 premature deaths, 380 cases of chronic bronchitis, 6,100 cases of aggravated asthma and 750,000 days missed from school or work a year by 2020.

The new rules will cost an estimated $7.6 billion to $8.5 billion a year to implement by 2020, but will save $2 billion to $19 billion a year in health costs and other benefits.

Johnson said he didn’t take into account the cost analysis or the ability to implement the plan when making a decision because the Clean Air Act precludes him from doing so. But the nation’s top environmental regulator also said Wednesday that he wanted to change the landmark environmental law so things like cost and feasibility can be used in determining future regulations.

Any such move is likely to be met with strong opposition in Congress. Health experts and environmentalists view the setting of health standards without consideration of cost as essential for assuring public health.

Such changes “would gut the Clean Air Act, which has saved countless lives and protected the health of millions of Americans for more than 35 years,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Link to article here.

After pushing for $5 billion more in bonds with Prop 12 last November, TxDOT now pretends to have an aversion to bond debt? Convenient! By the time the Governor and his Transportation Commission are finished playing politics with our roads, they won’t be able to sell bonds because lending conditions are souring every day, and congestion will be eliminated by the high price of gas.

Borrow more for roads, legislators urge transportation department
Perry rejects Dewhurst/Craddick suggestion as a ‘two-year stopgap.’
By Ben Wear
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Go borrow some money and build some things, legislative leaders told the Texas Department of Transportation in a letter Tuesday.

The short letter — signed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, House Speaker Tom Craddick, Senate Finance Chairman Steve Ogden and House Appropriations Chairman Warren Chisum — recommends that TxDOT borrow another $1.5 billion against future gas tax revenue to bridge a temporary financial tight spot. The Legislature, the letter promises, will make sure that some of the gas tax money now diverted to other, nonhighway-construction needs will be returned to the agency to back the bonds.

TxDOT issued a statement that in effect punted the ball to Gov. Rick Perry’s office. Spokesman Robert Black said Perry has no interest, at least for now, in more debt of this kind.

“What this letter is asking TxDOT to do is a two-year stopgap, two years of going further into debt,” Black said. “A long-term solution comes first. Last year the Legislature came in and all they did was say ‘no.’ With the rate this state is growing and the needs and challenges we have in transportation, we can’t afford to say ‘no’ anymore.”

The Legislature has authorized TxDOT to borrow up to $6 billion against the gas tax; the agency so far has issued just $2.9 billion. Agency officials and Perry, citing slowing gas tax revenue, have resisted issuing more bonds backed by gas taxes.

The state budget for the 2008-09 biennium, according to TxDOT’s count, uses almost $1.6 billion from gas taxes and vehicle fees for agencies other than TxDOT. About three-fourths of that, $1.25 billion, pays for operations of the Department of Public Safety and the state troopers who patrol the state highway system.

The agency has said it ceased pursuing many new construction projects as of Feb. 1 because it wouldn’t have the money in later years to pay for them. So, if the agency in the current fiscal year spent the $1.5 billion suggested by Tuesday’s letter to begin a series of projects, it could have trouble paying the rest later on.

But the legislative letter to Hope Andrade, Texas Transportation Commission chairwoman, says TxDOT should expect more help from the Legislature.

“This action will allow transportation construction to return to reasonable levels in the short-term, but this is just the beginning of the conversation,” the letter says.

In Central Texas, where this year’s engineering budget was cut from $45.2 million to $19.6 million, road projects were put on hold or became candidates for local funding. Those projects included adding lanes to MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) and the widening of FM 1460 between Round Rock and Georgetown, RM 2338 in Williamson County, and Texas 195, which runs from Interstate 35 in Williamson County to Killeen.

It also forced Central Texas’ local toll authority to carry more of the cost of the design and construction of a second wave of toll roads approved in October

TxDOT had announced the construction slowdown in November, citing inflation in construction costs and cutbacks in federal grants. In early February, at a hearing called by two Senate committees, TxDOT revealed that it had double-counted $1.1 billion in scheduling construction projects. That mistake, officials said at the time, had a lot to do with the crunch.

The state auditor is now looking at TxDOT’s finances.

Link to article here. The price of gas is quickly becoming the number one economic concern among voters, and considering even a 20 cent per mile toll is like adding $5 to every gallon of gas you buy (if your vehicle gets 20 MPG), who are the tollers kidding? The average American cannot afford tolls and even TxDOT’s own studies show toll roads aren’t financially viable once gas hits $3 a gallon…now there’s talk of it hitting $4 a gallon unabated!

So why are the tollers still pushing a system they know will financially fail? Rather than discard the toll plans, they subsidize them. That’s right, expect to see more and more of our gas taxes and public funds subsidize what government already knows is a financial sinkhole for taxpayers! They now represent and care more about road contractors who fund their campaigns than they do the taxpayers footing the bill.

Fuel Prices Siphoning Money From U.S. Economy
Cheney Visit to Saudi Arabia May Include Plea on Oil Output
By Steven Mufson Washington Post Staff Writer
March 11, 2008

Crude oil prices continued a record-breaking climb today that pushed it past $109 a barrel, while the price of regular unleaded gasoline at the pump came within half a cent of its all-time high.

Link to article here. Let’s remember that the Minnesota bridge collapse was deemed an engineering flaw not a result of age. Having a public bank get cozy with private hogs at the trough sends up a flurry of red flags. Follow the money and campaign accounts…Dodd and Hagel are far too willing to sell out the public interest.

If the federal government would stop diverting 40% of our federal gas taxes away from roads, and if it would stop loading up spending bills with more than 6,000 earmarks like it did on the last federal highway bill, there would be PLENTY of money for the nation’s infrastructure. They know it; however, they’d rather spew the pro-toll propaganda that creates an artificial “crisis” that only the hogs at the trough can solve!

CQ TODAY MIDDAY UPDATE
March 11, 2008
Senate Panel Considers Public-Private Partnership for Infrastructure Funding
The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee held a hearing Tuesday on legislation to create a public-private partnership to finance needed improvements in the nation’s infrastructure.

The bill, sponsored by Chairman Christopher J. Dodd , D-Conn., and Chuck Hagel , R-Neb., was introduced Aug. 1, the same day an Interstate highway bridge collapsed in Minneapolis, killing 13.

“Some might say that our legislation is ‘too expensive,’ or that ‘we can’t afford to implement such a policy.’ I say we can’t afford not to.” Dodd said.

Hagel said the national infrastructure bank envisioned in the bill would be able to leverage private capital to supplement the current levels of public spending.

“The federal government does not have and will not have the resources to appropriate the required funding necessary to meet our future national infrastructure goals,” he said.

All sides agree that the nation’s transportation infrastructure — especially highways and bridges — needs help if it is to survive projected surges in population, freight traffic and trade. But everyone seems to have a different plan to generate the necessary revenue.

A Jan. 15 report by the 12-member National Surface Transportation Policy and Revenue Study Commission recommended raising the 18.4-cents-a-gallon federal gasoline tax to 40 cents a gallon over five years to help raise at least $225 billion a year for transportation improvements. The commission also urged the federal government to assume more of the financing burden from states.

The federal government currently covers about 40 percent of the nation’s transportation costs. President Bush’s fiscal 2009 budget request proposes $57.1 billion for the Transportation Department, a 10 percent cut from fiscal 2008. Of that total, $39.4 billion would go to highways, about $1.8 billion less than Congress appropriated in fiscal 2008.