Guide to the Green in Obama's Budget: Dept. of Transportation
1. Explore Road Pricing
As mentioned above, one idea is road pricing, or a Vehicle Miles Traveled fee. This would levy a fee on drivers for every mile they travel, purportedly around 2 cents a mile. According to the NY Times:
The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission says the shift is necessary because the current funding mechanism -- federal fuel taxes -- has failed to raise the necessary revenue for needed roadwork and runs counter intuitive to national environmental and energy goals.
The idea is to have the VMT tax become the main funding mechanism for road maintenance by 2020, and to pick up the slack where the fuel taxes have failed. The wording in the budget suggests it could be implemented as soon as the next fiscal year, though how exactly is still unknown. The Environmental Defense Fund, whose Transportation Director, Michael Replogle, is also an advisor to the Dept. of Transportation, is behind this idea:
“We applaud the Commission for introducing ideas, such as the VMT fee, that can both raise revenue and reward infrastructure and personal decisions that result in less environmental impact."
Photo via Railway Technology
2. Getting the Rail on the Ground
The budget includes room for a $5 billion high-speed rail state grant program, which will ostensibly allow states to direct projects individually. The hope is that this will lead to the creation of several "high-speed rail corridors across the country linking regional population centers." This renewed interest in railroads from the federal government could be a very, very good thing—nothing will get people out of their cars faster than a comfortable, efficient alternative.
The Not-So Green in the Budget
There's $55 million in the budget to provide rural areas with roadways to airports, and almost a billion to develop Next Gen air traffic control technology. But seeing how reliable air traffic control is mandatory, there's really nothing egregiously ungreen about the budget. Other than the rail plans and the road pricing proposal (which is still very much up in the air and might not even fully take effect for nearly a decade), however, there's nothing revolutionary planned, either.
Department of Transit Budget Verdict:
It looks pretty good on the green front—there're plenty of reasons to get excited about the plans for new rail, and a road pricing agenda would be a solid motivation for people to find alternative modes of transportation. So at least on an ideological level, (it still needs to get approved and implemented, of course) the budget for the Dept. of Transportation seems to be steering the US to greener pastures.
More Obama Green:
Who’s Who on Obama ’s Green Team: Stephen Chu, Secretary of Energy
Obama Says Climate Change Is Real, Will Hire Gore
What Environmental Challenges Await President Obama>
