John Petro of the Drum Major Institute writes:
Reducing How Much We Drive Should be a National Transportation Goal
Last month, Senators John D. Rockefeller and Frank Lautenberg introduced a bill that would establish performance-based goals for our surface transportation system. The bill would, according to Senator Lautenberg, "establish a national policy that improves safety, reduces congestion, creates jobs, and protects our environment."
Among these goals is to reduce the amount Americans drive, or more specifically, to "reduce national per capita motor vehicle miles traveled on an annual basis." Basically, Americans should be driving less—fewer trips over shorter distances. This has as much to do with the way we use our land as it does with transportation policy. Where we choose to live and work and get the groceries largely determines how much we drive. We are driving longer distances to work and to complete all the other little errands that populate our days.
However, Gabriel Roth argues in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that reducing the amount we drive should not be a policy goal of the federal government.
Reducing the total miles traveled—whether the length or number of trips—means people would have to reduce the activities they want and need to do. People would be "coerced," in effect, to live in less desirable places or work in less desirable jobs; shop in fewer and closer stores; see their doctor less frequently; visit fewer family members and friends.
Roth’s claim of coercion is absurd. |
= = =
The rescue begins below and continues in the jump. With this edition, the Green Diary Rescue departs for a two-week vacation. The next GDR will appear on July 26. If you haven’t yet joined DK GreenRoots, you’re missing out on a dynamic group of eco-blogger advocates.
= = =
Haole in Hawaii posted Another Random Photo Diary from his island retreat. This is a shot from last winter off Laie Point.
Bruce Nilles announced a Milestone: 100th Coal Plant Stopped: "As of today, 100 coal plants have been defeated or abandoned since the beginning of the coal rush. Late yesterday, news came down that Utah-based Intermountain Power Agency is abandoning plans for a third coal-fired generator in the state. This news comes as President Obama is at the G8 summit in Italy discussing action on global warming. As other countries like China say they will not act until the U.S. does, these 100 stopped plants are a sign from Americans. We are taking action against global warming, and it's time to join us."
= = =
The Overnight News Digest is posted. Included is the story Panetta orders internal probe of secret spy program after some members of Congress say CIA misled them.
Boxer shelves ACES for higher priority health care reform, wrote RLMiller: "Officially, Senator Boxer's Environment & Public Works committee will keep working on the American Climate & Energy Security Act (aka Waxman-Markey, HR 2454) up until Christmas. Unofficially, it's not going to happen this year ... and that's very bad news for America's credibility at Copenhagen."
oregonj quoted a famous person as saying "We will destroy the planet as humanity knows it": "Those were the words written today in the Huffington Post by Dr. James Hansen. Jim Hansen is director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. The outlook for humanity, or the U.S. Congress, to come to grips with the climate crisis is not good."
davidwalters told us How to finance new non-carbon, alternative nuclear energy: "Secondly, because any growth in the productive capacity of new energy generation, right now, means an increase in carbon. And carbon is THE priority bullet item for elimination as it's single most important environmental issue in the world today. So...back to the money. What follows is only one proposal. There are others and even I have others. But short of a truly national public power entity: the TVA on steroids minus any private equity, which is REALLY what I am for, there are several transitional forms of financing we can consider. My current favorite is the National Nuclear Development Bank. This would be a wholly owned and financed U.S. government agency that would stream line loans to new nuclear builds, favoring public power entities over investor owned ones, and regulated utilities over merchant entities. But that is not mandatory and reflects my own ideological prejudice in terms of public vs private."
greendem reported Chevron gets busted, fires workers, attacks local tax laws: "The screaming headlines around the Bay Area today talk about what a crime it is that community activists held Chevron Richmond accountable and won a lawsuit against their bogus EIR to expand their facilities in a city that is already an environmental justice poster child. The issue is an Environmental Impact Report that the City of Richmond approved, against the will of its citizens, which allowed Chevron to expand its facilities to refine fuel from dirtier grades of crude, and thus create more pollution in the region. Chevron rushed to start the project before the inevitable lawsuits were filed, as a sort of PR safety blanket."
A Siegel pondered Twitting Claire: "Senator Clair McCaskill (D-MO) loves twitter. On more than one occasion and re more than one issue, Claire's Twitter comments have raised eyebrows for their ‘embarrassing mistakes or faults.’ And, on more than one occasion, people have used Twitter to twit Claire about her statements. Recently, Twitting Claire posted a message re climate change. ’I hope we can fix cap and trade so it doesn't unfairly punish businesses and families in coal-dependent states like Missouri.’ ... Among the questions Siegel thinks might be asked: What is ‘unfair’ vs ‘fair’ punishment for polluting energy usage?"
In Going Green terryhallinan asked: "What is this green miracle in Sweden you think? It is not solar though there is solar. It is not wind power though there are probably wind turbines. Nobody wants to freeze in the dark in Sweden with intermittent power. It is not nukes though some think nuclear winter is a fine way to fight global warming. It is not geothermal because Sweden is as reluctant to generate power from geothermal as Vermont. A clue to solving the mystery can be found in a Swedish company in Florida: Welcome to Green Circle. As the renewable energy sector is in its formative years of becoming a large scale industry, Green Circle has been established with the purpose of becoming a major player in the international market for alternative, carbon neutral energy. Bio Green Circle does it with a plantation."
draftsmoot explained that Without Public Input TVA Sending Spilled Coal Ash from Tenn to Alabama: "We first wrote about this situation about a month ago, when the idea of sending toxic coal from a Tennessee Spill into an Alabama landfill was in the planning stages. Despite a number of concerns from residents, environmentalists and public officials a public hearing was never scheduled on this matter. Every two days for approximately a year 85 rail cars, containing coal ash containing heavy metals and other hazardous compounds, will trek from Eastern Tennessee through Birmingham all the way to Perry County, Alabama. This is at a minimum a 350-mile distance. While local officials contend that this will produce jobs and economic development in the poor community, others are not so sure of the long term impacts to the health and safety and even economic stability of this."
mwmwm posted a YouTube of his Plenary speech on environmental collapse (and publishing): "For those of you who are attentive to the environment: to carbon chaos, to species collapse, to ocean acidification, to toxins everywhere, this is as good a summary of converging crises as I could do, in the time allotted.
Nulwee wrote some eco-meta in Richard Jenkins and Thinking Through Your Environmentalism!: "This diary is about the environmental and conservation movements, about the difference between deep green and shallow green environmentalism, and an innovative scientist who radicalized conservation and re-branded it as a potent force for change.
gsadamb demanded of CA Lawmakers: Don't Mess with Our Hi-Speed Rail!: "California is a great state, with so much that helps to define it and helps to give it its "Californiaish" qualities. Other contests notwithstanding, voters in this state approved a bond measure for a long-planned hi-speed rail system, which is allowing the project to move forward. Because the HSR system in California is funded with specifically allocated bonds, it has to this point been more or less immune from the budget woes going on in Sacramento. (Aside from having to avoid PR flak from people who don't understand the minutiae of state budgetary issues and wonder why they're continuing to work on the HSR planning, at any rate.) Amazingly, the California state legislature has done something that could potentially put the project at risk. And it needs to be stopped."