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Archive for the ‘Policy’ Category

Beyond Repair? America’s Infrastructure Crisis Is Local

Friday, October 30th, 2015
Figure 1. Federal Aid vs. Nonfederal Aid Mileage

MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH
While states own a large portion of highly traveled roads, such as interstate highways, local governments are responsible for the majority of roadway mileage. Counties and municipalities, including minor civil divisions such as townships, are responsible for 3.1 million miles of roads and streets. Only 430,000 miles (14 percent) of these are part of the federal aid system. The remaining 2.7 million (86 percent) are nonfederal aid. By contrast, 72 percent of the 780,000 miles of state-owned roads are in the federal aid system (Figure 1).

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Climate Change and the U.S. Energy Sector: Regional Vulnerabilities and Resilience Solutions

Thursday, October 29th, 2015
Projected Climate Impacts on U.S. Energy by Region

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Changes in climate create diverse challenges across the U.S. energy system. Some energy infrastructure assets have already suffered damage or disruption in services from a variety of climate-related impacts, such as higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and more severe weather events. In the absence of concerted action to improve resilience, energy system vulnerabilities pose a threat to America’s national security, energy security, economic wellbeing, and quality of life.

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Guest on The Infra Blog: Philip K. Howard, Founder & Chair, Common Good

Tuesday, October 20th, 2015
Philip K. Howard on The Infra Blog

Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. In 2002, he formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America.

“…we’re at one of those points where lots of things have to change in our society, and one of them happens to be the legal infrastructure. You can’t have a democracy where the people you elect actually don’t have the authority that goes along with their responsibility…it’s kind of a form of legal mental illness. It’s bad for everybody. Bad for the environment, bad for costs, bad for everybody.”

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Rhode Island: The Economic Impact of RhodeWorks

Monday, October 19th, 2015
Scenario Key:

RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF REVENUEREGIONAL ECONOMIC MODELS, INC. Executive Summary Rhode Island ranks last in the nation for overall bridge condition. The RhodeWorks accelerated transportation plan seeks to achieve a goal of 90% structurally sufficient bridges, the federally mandated minimum, by 2025, with the intention of improving safety, making Rhode Island more attractive for businesses […]

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States’ Role in Solving a National Crisis

Thursday, October 15th, 2015

Written by Patrick Jones
Over the last couple of years, a new group of players has burst onto the scene with the local knowledge and sense of urgency to break the financial deadlock behind our nation’s infrastructure crisis. With Congress still considering how to pay for a possible short-term or long-term highway transportation funding bill, it’s becoming ever clearer that regional and state governments hold the key to a tough problem that pits the value we attach to mobility against lingering resistance to paying for the services we need.

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Shared Solar: Current Landscape, Market Potential, and the Impact of Federal Securities Regulation

Wednesday, October 14th, 2015
Figure ES-1. Estimated PV market potential of onsite and shared solar distributed PV capacity

NATIONAL RENEWABLE ENERGY LABORATORY
This report provides a high-level overview of the current U.S. shared solar landscape and the impact that a given shared solar program’s structure has on requiring federal securities oversight, as well as an estimate of market potential for U.S. shared solar deployment. Shared solar models allocate the electricity of a jointly owned or leased system to offset individual consumers’ electricity bills, allowing multiple energy consumers to share the benefits of a single solar array. Despite tremendous growth in the U.S. solar market over the last decade, existing business models and regulatory environments have not been designed to provide access to a significant portion of potential PV system customers.

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Entering the Pipeline: Engaging Disconnected Workers in the New Orleans Regional Economy

Monday, October 12th, 2015
Recommendations

CENTER FOR PLANNING EXCELLENCE
Residents who don’t have access to an automobile are often stranded, and this applies disproportionately to disconnected workers in the Capital Region. According to 2010 data, Baton Rouge has a high percentage of households without vehicles – 11% compared to 9% nationwide. These residents, the majority of whom are low-income, have limited access to transit services that could connect them to the education, training and jobs they need to get ahead.

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Multi-year Highway Bill Facing Continued Uncertainties

Thursday, October 8th, 2015

Innovation Newsbriefs
Vol. 26, No. 7 (update)
Those who have hoped to see an end to the seemingly endless series of short-term extensions and looked forward to a passage of the long- awaited multi-year transportation bill this year, may have to wait a bit longer. While the Senate has managed to pass its version of a six year bill (though only with enough funding for three years and employing questionable “pay-fors.”) the House Transportation and Infrastructure committee is still waiting to hear from the Ways and Means Committee concerning the funding of its proposed bill, an issue that threatens to delay committee markup and floor action past mid- October according to congressional sources.

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Why Congress Needs to Extend the Positive Train Control (PTC) Deadline

Tuesday, October 6th, 2015
Figure 1: Railcar Loadings by Commodity Class, 2014

AMERICAN CHEMISTRY COUNCIL

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