John Hennessy III,
P.E.
POLITICAL ECONOMY RESEARCH INSTITUTE
The pursuit of energy efficiency in commercial and multifamily buildings would lead to more than 114,000 new jobs in many industries hard hit by the recession. The President’s Better Buildings Initiative seeks to tap into that job creation potential with a suite of policies designed to encourage the pursuit of energy efficiency…
SOLAR ELECTRIC POWER ASSOCIATION
In addition to continued growth, the new report shows two dramatic changes taking place in utilities‘ use of solar power. 1) The report demonstrates that more and more growth came from areas outside the traditionally strong solar regions of California and the Southwest. Many utilities in other parts of the country now have sizeable solar portfolios, and tens of thousands of photovoltaic (PV) systems were installed in nationwide. 2) With a growing trend toward more utility-owned solar projects and third-party power purchase agreements (PPA), the industry is no longer based solely on customer-owned, net-metered systems.
NATURAL RESOURCES DEFENSE COUNCIL
While the nation continues to grapple with a troubling housing market and a rash of mortgage defaults, new research has emerged drawing a direct link between “location efficiency”—a measure of the transportation costs in a given area—and mortgage foreclosure rates. The study shows that factors such as neighborhood compactness, access to public transit, and rates of vehicle ownership are key to predicting mortgage performance and should be taken more seriously by mortgage underwriters, policymakers, and real estate developers.
According to Slate, “Much of the public health debate over rising obesity rates has turned to these “food deserts,” where convenience store fare is more accessible—and more expensive—than healthier options farther away…” A comment sums up the issue: “As our population ages, more and more will have to move out of rural areas into urban centers where services and basic necessities can be reached via public transportation. I wish our government and local planners had the wisdom to anticipate such problems”
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UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA HIGH-SPEED RAIL STUDIO
The success of the United States has always depended on mobility. Without investments in canals, railroads, highways, and runways, this vast country would never have realized its creative and productive potential. In 2010, a group of researchers from the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design presented a visionary plan to meet the Northeast’s mobility needs through a new mode: High-speed rail.
KPMG
This report provides insight into global mergers & acquisitions (M&A) activity in the renewable energy sector. The findings are based on a survey of 500 senior executives active in the renewable energy industry worldwide. The survey and report were written in collaboration with Clean Energy pipeline, a specialist renewable energy research and data provider. Transaction data and statistics included in the report have been extracted directly from Clean Energy pipeline’s databases. Clean Energy pipeline is a division of VB/Research.
BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION STATISTICS (BTS)
RESEARCH AND INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGY ADMINISTRATION (RITA), U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
The Transportation Statistics Annual Report (TSAR) presents data and information compiled by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), a component of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s (USDOT’s) Research and Innovative Technology Administration (RITA), to fulfill its legislative mandate. The RITA/BTS mandate covers all modes of transportation and calls for the collection and analysis of transportation data on topics relevant to USDOT’s strategic goals.
The Annual Highlights section focuses on recent USDOT efforts to collect, compile, analyze, and publish transportation data and analysis. Such efforts include the following:
* the Survey of State Funding for Public Transportation,
* Livable Communities and Environmental Sustainability highlights from the Omnibus Household Survey, and
* Commodity Flow Survey (CFS) data and analysis on Hazardous Materials (Hazmat) shipments.
NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF STATE LEGISLATURES & AASHTO CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN PROJECT FINANCE
From 2010 to 2011, the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) and the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) partnered to produce an unprecedented, 50-state review of transportation governance and finance, based largely on in-depth, original survey research. The project focused on transportation finance and on the roles of, and relationships between, those state government entities that are most active in transportation issues: state legislatures and, under the authority of governors, state departments of transportation (DOTs)…The report provides an overview of state transportation governance and finance as well as detailed profiles and other information for each state, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
SMART GROWTH AMERICA & TAXPAYERS FOR COMMON SENSE
By underfunding repair and allowing roads to fall out of good condition, state leaders are choosing the most expensive type of repair possible, as rehabilitating a road that has completely deteriorated is substantially more expensive than keeping that road in good condition in the first place…Adding further urgency to these budget concerns is that with every dollar spent on new construction, states add to a road system they are already failing to adequately maintain. As a result, states face a large and growing financial burden.
INSTITUTE FOR TRANSPORTATION & DEVELOPMENT POLICY
Bus Rapid Transit was first implemented in Curitiba, Brazil in 1974, and has become a global phenomenon in the twenty-first century. Major new BRT projects have opened since the turn of the century in Africa, Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Mexico, Turkey, several cities in Europe, and dozens of cities in Latin America…Though it is still in its infancy in the United States, several good BRT systems have opened in the country over the last decade, and perhaps a dozen new projects are in the pipeline in cities from San Francisco to Chicago. In many ways, the spread of BRT in the twenty-first century mimics the worldwide spread of the streetcar a century earlier.
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