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TRANSPORTATION: Could Climate Change Bill Mean New Funding?

By Matthew Lewis | February 26, 2009, 4:26 pm

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission released a much-anticipated "road map" this morning to help guide Congress as it looks to reauthorize the country's surface transportation system — a system in crisis, according to the report, in part because Congressional funding mechanisms for new roads and transit systems are widely viewed as inadequate.

“The stakes are too high and the hole we have dug for ourselves is too big to wait for a new revenue system to be put in place,” the report states.

A portion of the answer may lie in prospective legislation dealing with climate change. Among the federal revenue options deemed “strong” by the Commission: the prospect of partially funding transportation through a carbon tax or cap and trade system, which would raise hundreds of billions of dollars per year from the auction of carbon emissions permits. A new report by the Center explores what climate change legislation might mean for public transportation agencies faced with shortfalls.

The Commission estimates that carbon taxes or a cap and trade system “would yield gross revenues of nearly $46-92 billion per year” from the transportation sector, though that number would likely drop over time due to many factors, like improved auto mileage. The transportation sector accounts for roughly 28 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, much of it from automobiles. The commission noted that the number of miles traveled by cars nearly doubled over the past quarter century.

But the transportation sector might also receive carbon-related tax proceeds allocated by the government, though assessing how much, the report said, would be “difficult.”

The American Public Transportation Association, along with a number of other groups allied in new coalitions focused on transit and rail funding, like Transportation for America and OneRail, will be looking for more of those revenues to be dedicated to projects that reduce emissions, like, say, mass transit.

“I think we really are seeing a sea change here,” said Paul Dean, director of government relations at APTA.

But there’s still political spadework to be done. While the commission rated carbon taxes as an “excellent” source of revenue potential for transportation, it deemed the “public acceptance/political viability” of the option as “fair.”

A bigger obstacle may simply be priorities. In his $3.6 trillion budget proposal, President Obama has proposed a cap-and-trade program for greenhouse gas emissions, which he hopes would bring in $646 billion in revenue over ten years — but the budget calls for less than a quarter of that revenue to pay for “clean energy technologies.” The rest of the revenue would go to lower- and middle-class tax relief.

Next entry: ENVIRONMENT: Coal-Fired Plant Under Attack, But May Still Have Some Important Backers
Previous entry: ENVIRONMENT: Following Obama’s Speech, Parsing Key Players for Global Warming Legislation

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Posted by: JCSpilman on February 26, 2009, 8:52 pm

There are several scientific comments that I would like to make about “Global
Warming” and “Global Climate Change”. There is a basic principal involved that has been overlooked by most of the non-scientific media.
These are covered in great detail in the references presented at the
conclusion of this discussion.

FIRST— is that this is NOT a new effect. It has occurred five times
during the past 500,000 years! The basic cause is Methane (CH4) and
NOT man-made Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The present global warming
cycle began about the time man was crossing the frozen land bridge
from Siberia to North America.

We need to understand the sources and mechanics of Methane that
are actually the basic cause of our global warming. Anything that has
grown, ranging from yard clippings to a decaying body, produces
methane as it decomposes. Methane gas from permafrost is a decay
product. Methane gas from the deep ocean (methane hydrate) is totally different.

Methane gas from oil wells is yet a very different composition. These
must all be recognized as such and understood as to their manner of
existence, production, and/or release.

Deep Sea Methane appears to be the waste product of a bacteriological
process and is therefore a renewable resource! ( See Reference 2).
It is a relative clean product of our environment. It has recently been
produced (as clean natural gas) in continuous commercial quantities
by Japanese & American scientists in Canada in 2008. It is this Methane
gas that has been bubbling up, for eons,from the continental shelfs
around the world that is the real culprit
and basic cause of our present situation.

Oil well Methane gas is a very dirty gas mixture — it is methane with
huge amounts of sulfur and other noxious gases mixed with it. The
Methane often mentioned in the media as “Bubbling up from Undersea
Permafrost” is a decay product. It is NOT from a Hydrate!

NEXT— Drastic Global Climate Change has taken place at least FIVE
different times during the last 500,000 years. Our present cycle is
the only one during which man has been a factor! (Ref. 1 & 2). Methane
gas which bubbles up continuously from the deep ocean sources (and
which in turn disassociates into CO2) is the true source of the “Greenhouse
Gas” that has operated in the previous five interglacial cycles — all
of which have been extinction cycles! As will this one!

These five previous cycles are NOT man made effects, nor is the
present cycle, and it IS TOO LATE to change our present cycle, we
may actually now be past the peak. We can only learn to adapt!
We cannot STOP the process although we might slow
it down for a few years, which in geological time is nothing.

We MUST ADAPT to survive! ADAPT! ADAPT ! ADAPT !

REFERENCES

There are several prime references associated with the material that I
have covered, if ever so briefly.

(1) EARTH’s CHANGING CLIMATE. Lecture Series by Dr. Richard
Wolfson, the Benjamin F. Wissler Professor of Physics at Middlebury
College. This is a six hour lecture series (12 segments of 30 minutes
each) on two DVDs produced by The Teaching Company of Chantilly VA
20151-1232. http://www.TEACH12.com

This series covers in-depth detail of the science and methodology of
climate change. It is not an advocacy program. Interestingly, Dr.
Wolfson does not even mention Methane-Clatherate in this lecture
series — knowledge on that subject is almost too new to have been
included. It was first discovered on a moon of Venus by NASA about
1985. At the time we did not even know that it existed on Earth!

(2) FIRE IN THE ICE. Quarterly Journal , U.S.Department of Energy,
Office of Fossil Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory. Also
known as Methane Hydrate Newsletter. Recommended reading is all
issues to current issue from about 2000 forward. This is the best of
several technical journals devoted to the science of Methane
Clatherates. http://www.netl.doe.gov/about/index.html

(3) HIGH TIDE by Mark Lynas. Picador, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY.
10010. ISBN 0-312-30365-3. This well written book clarifies the problems
of Global Warming “… The American People have been subjected to one
of the most pervasive misinformation campaigns ever undertaken … “ http://www.picadorusa.com

(4) WITH SPEED AND VIOLENCE [Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in
Climate Change] by Fred Pearce. Beacon Press; 25 Beacon Street;
Boston, MA 02108. © 2007. “We are on the precipice of climate system
tipping points beyond which there is no redemption”
http://www.beacon.org

(5) Natural Gas Hydrate Studies in Canada; Hyndman & Dallimore from
The Recorder, 26,11-20, 2001, Canadian Society of Exploration
Geophysicists.

JCSpilman, P.E. (Ret.) Huntsville, AL
====================================================

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