Hutchison calls for increase in refinery capacity

Link to the article here.

Sen. Hutchison Urges Refinery Expansion to Help Alleviate Gas Prices
Texas Insider
Published: 05-29-08
Provision, which Passed in 2005, will Help Increase Domestic Refinery Capacity through Tax Deduction


WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Texas’ senior senator, today sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging his department to expedite the regulation process for tax deductions to spur domestic refinery expansions.

Sen. Hutchison included a provision in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT), which provides a 50 percent tax deduction for domestic refineries that increase existing capacity by five percent or more. Although EPACT became law in 2005, the Treasury Department has not approved the pending regulation, also known as Section 179 C.

“At this time when Americans are paying record high prices for fuel, the U.S. government is standing in the way of increasing supply,” said Sen. Hutchison. “This regulation, which encourages expansion of domestic refinery capacity, will increase the supply of fuel to alleviate prices at the pump.”

Sen. Hutchison sent a similar letter to Treasury in April 2007 when gasoline was $2.86 a gallon. Today, the national average is $3.94 a gallon.

TEXT OF THE LETTER

May 28, 2008

The Honorable Henry M. Paulson
Secretary
U.S. Department of the Treasury
1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20220

Dear Secretary Paulson:

I write today to express my continued support for expedited approval of a pending regulation which awaits final approval at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Almost three years have passed since the Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandated that this regulation be finalized. American families need the relief that this regulation will provide now more than ever.

Specifically, this regulation, Sec. 179C of the Internal Revenue Code, allows a refinery to expense up to 50 percent of the cost of a refinery expansion if the project increases overall capacity by at least five percent. As you may recall, I wrote to you in April 2007 when gasoline was $2.86 a gallon, diesel was $2.79 a gallon, and a barrel of oil was $64. Today, gasoline is $3.94 a gallon, diesel is $4.72 a gallon, and a barrel of oil exceeds $127.

At this time when Americans are paying record high prices for gasoline and diesel, the U.S. Government should do all it can to reduce these prices. This regulation, which encourages expansion of domestic refining capacity, will increase the supply of fuel to alleviate prices at the pump. Moreover, the longer refineries must wait for these regulations, the more uncertainty is added to their investment decisions to expand capacity. These regulations must be finalized as soon as possible to allow companies to plan for future construction.

I appreciate your efforts to date to finalize this regulation and encourage you to expedite its approval.

Sincerely,

Kay Bailey Hutchison

All talk, no teeth as Transportation Commission attempts to quell opposition

Don't believe the hype. Today the Texas Transportation Commission adopted a Minute Order designed to fool people into thinking they've changed their stripes. The reality? It's all posturing. New Chairwoman Deirdre Delisi (who has no transportation experience only running political campaigns for Rick Perry then becoming his Chief of Staff) wants the Senate to confirm her, and the Commission knows the Sunset Review will bring serious legislatively mandated changes they want to avoid. There's nothing about a Minute Order that is even binding. TxDOT can change this at their whim and violate it anytime. Add to that, many of these provisions are already not allowed or required by state law.

Here's a summary of the gaping holes and inadequacies of this Minute Order:

They don't mention that a competing facility could require compensation (taxpayer payments to investors if TxDOT expands or builds a competing road), and there's no mention of stripping non-competes from bond agreements (they only addressed CDAs or PPPs contracts here). Bond companies require non-competes and create the same guaranteed congestion on non-toll routes.

Also, there's no prohibition against taking existing highway lanes and tolling them leaving the only non-toll lanes frontage roads (totally different in function and speed and stop light times can be manipulated to drive traffic to the toll lanes, etc.). That's the crux of much of the angst on urban toll projects. They also failed to address their illegal ad campaign and lobbying. If they seriously wanted to build trust, they would have moved to cease those practices unconditionally.

Until the Legislature takes the power of decision-making of this type AWAY from an un-elected, unaccountable agency run amok and gives it back to the PEOPLE and their representatives, this whole exercise is a non-starter.

______________________________

Associated Press Newswire

May 29, 2008

AUSTIN (AP) - Transportation Commission Chair Deirdre Delisi led
her first meeting today and expressed a desire to build public
trust in the transportation agency.

The commissioners adopted an order governing toll projects and
the Trans-Texas Corridor. They also set out to improve citizen and
legislative access to Texas Department of Transportation's
financial data.

The commission unanimously agreed that:
- all Texas highways will be owned by the state, not private
developers;
- the state may buy back the interest of a private road
developer;
- only expansions to existing highways will be tolled and
existing free lanes won't be reduced;
- and that "non-compete clauses" will be banned, meaning no
state contract will limit improvements to nearby existing roads.

Transportation Chair Delisi's political ties to Gov. Rick Perry
drew criticism when he appointed her.

Steepest decline in driving EVER RECORDED!

Link to article here.

"Figures show... the steepest decline in driving ever recorded."

That statement says it all. This is not the time to add toll taxes to our freeways or to proliferate toll roads in general. It's simple economics. People's wallets aren't an endless cash cow for government and road contractors to pilfer at will. There's a limit to the family budget, and there's only so much money consumers can sink into transportation before radical changes in behavior ensue, including changes to where people live, work, and play. And most changes driven by severe economic times aren't for the better.

As gas goes up, driving goes down
CNN.com
May 26, 2008

March figures show steepest decline in driving since 1942
Compared with last year, drivers have logged 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT says
Americans planned to drive less over Memorial Day weekend, AAA reports
Public transportation ridership on rise, in part because of gas prices, group says
(CNN) -- At a time when gas prices are at an all-time high, Americans have curtailed their driving at a historic rate.
art.gas.pump.gi.jpg
Americans are not driving as much as they did a year ago as gas prices skyrocket.

The Department of Transportation said figures from March show the steepest decrease in driving ever recorded.


Compared with March a year earlier, Americans drove an estimated 4.3 percent less -- that's 11 billion fewer miles, the DOT's Federal Highway Administration said Monday, calling it "the sharpest yearly drop for any month in FHWA history." Records have been kept since 1942.

According to AAA, for the first time since 2002, Americans said they were planning to drive less over the Memorial Day weekend than they did the year before.

Tracy and Adam Crews posted on iReport that their annual Memorial Day weekend has traditionally involved camping and fishing.

"Well, due to the continual rise in gas, we felt our only recourse was to nix the idea this year and stay home" in Jacksonville, Florida, they wrote.

Instead, the couple said they "decided to camp out in the backyard. We set the tent up, just finished installing our above ground pool, and cleaned up the grill. ... We have ourselves a campsite! It's been a blast!"

Nakeisha Easterwood of Smyrna, Georgia, said with gas prices on the rise, she sometimes catches rides with friends, and doesn't drive into town more than once a day. "It's crazy," she said.

According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of regular gas rose to a record $3.936. That compares with an average price per gallon of $3.23 last Memorial Day.

"With it being near $4 a gallon, you definitely have to drive slower and pick and choose when you're going to do it," said Steve Kahn of Roswell, Georgia, at a Memorial Day festival in Atlanta.

Some Americans have turned to public transportation. Ridership increased by 2.1 percent in 2007, in part because of rising gas prices, according to the American Public Transportation Association.

Americans took 10.3 billion trips on public transportation in 2007, the highest level in 50 years, the group said.

The Energy Information Administration says gas consumption for the first three months of 2008 is estimated to be down about 0.6 percent from the same time period in 2007.

For the summer season, gas consumption is expected to be down 0.4 percent from last year.

Abertis & Citigroup to pay $12.8 Billion for Pennsylvania turnpike

Link to article here.

In the highest pricetag fetched for an American toll road to date, Abertis, a Spanish toll road giant, along with Citigroup will pay the state of Pennsylvania a whopping $12.8 billion for the right to empty the pockets of Pennsylvanians with interest and private profits for the next 75 years! Pennsylvanians can expect BIG, FAT toll hikes to pay back such a stunning sum.

Citi tops bidding for Pa. Turnpike
A Citigroup unit and Barcelona's Abertis Infraestructuras submit a $12.8B bid to lease the Pennsylvania toll road for 75 years.
CNN/Money.com
May 19, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A Spanish company and a unit of Citigroup Inc. teamed up to submit the largest bid for the right to lease the Pennsylvania Turnpike for the next 75 years.

Barcelona-based Abertis Infraestructuras, Abertis investor Criteria CaixaCorp of Spain and Citi Infrastructure Investors offered $12.8 billion, beating their nearest competitor by $700 million, Gov. Ed Rendell said Monday.

Rendell described himself as "strongly in favor of it." But the Legislature must approve any deal, and one leader in the Democratic-controlled House said he was not impressed with the bid.


"To be quite candid, the number is less than overwhelming," said Majority Whip Keith McCall, D-Carbon. "It's certainly not dead on arrival, but it's something we do need to discuss with the entire caucus."

Raising dollars for transportation
The Democratic governor has pursued the plan to have a private entity operate and maintain 500 miles of the turnpike system to raise billions for Pennsylvania's transportation needs.

The lease deal would let the operator increase tolls 25% in January, and then by 2.5% or an amount equal to consumer price inflation after that. The turnpike's operating revenue was $608 million in the fiscal year that ended last May.

Rendell predicted the Abertis and Citi (C, Fortune 500) deal would generate an average of $1.1 billion a year in the first 10 years - income from the investment of the lump-sum lease payment - for roads, bridges and mass transit.

If the deal goes through, the state would almost certainly abandon a plan to introduce tolls to Interstate 80 that would be expected to generate about $500 million a year. The tolls were the primary component of a law passed last summer that is expected to produce about $940 million annually for transportation needs.

Repealing those tolls has become a priority for many people and businesses along the highway, as well as the lawmakers who represent them.

Abertis directly manages more than 2,000 miles of toll roads in other countries; it also manages a toll bridge in Puerto Rico and airport facilities in California, Florida and Georgia.

The Abertis-Citi bid is good through June 20, but the bidders said they intended to be flexible since legislative action in the next month is not likely.

"We'd like to see it done this fall," said Citi Infrastructure Investments partner Michael B.G. Froman.

Rendell said the two losing bidders were teams consisting of Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Transurban Group of Australia; and of the Macquarie Infrastructure Group of Australia and Cintra of Spain. Goldman-Transurban's final bid was $12.1 billion; Macquarie-Cintra's was $8.1 billion.

Can hydrogen help stretch your gas mileage?


Link to article here.

Once again, this show people are far more worried about the price of gas than they are about congestion. Simple economics dictates that few can afford to pay tolls on top of escalating gas prices.

I-Team: Hydrogen generator that increases gas mileage being tested in S.A.
05/20/2008
By Barry Davis
KENS 5 Eyewitness News

The national average for unleaded gasoline is more than $3.75 per gallon and is expected to go higher. Unless you're driving a hybrid vehicle, you are likely spending almost twice as much on gas as you were just two years ago.

But what if there was a way to cut gas expenses by as much as 50 percent by doing something as simple as turning on your kitchen faucet?

Scientists in San Antonio are testing a hydrogen generator that could dramatically raise your fuel efficiency. Some scientists, however, say it just doesn't wash.


"You can't get something for nothing. And starting with water is a very difficult way to get energy," said Dr. Charlie Roberts, with the Southwest Research Institute.

The technology to produce hydrogen gas is actually about 100 years old. Through electrolysis, two molecules of hydrogen are separated from the one molecule of oxygen in H20 (water). The relatively new use is burning the elements separately to supplement gasoline.

It seems almost futuristic to take water from your faucet and put it into a generator under your vehicle's hood and drive away.

"We tested several vehicles in New Jersey last month and the numbers were like fiction, you know — 80 miles per gallon with a 4-cylinder Honda, 80 miles per gallon with a 4-cylinder Ford Focus," said professional mechanic Steve Gerhlein. "This system doesn't do anything more than help stretch the gasoline dollar by converting water with a chemical, which is potassium hydroxide mixed up in a special proportion. And then it makes hydrogen and oxygen that the engine then uses as a fuel."

Gerhlein, a professional mechanic for more than 30 years, was so intrigued by what he read about hydrogen generators that he put one on his wife's Lexus.

Without the hydrogen generator, Gerhlein said the Lexus, running on super unleaded, got about 14 miles per gallon. With the hydrogen generator the vehicle gets about 19 miles per gallon. By tweaking the computer to accept the extra fuel, Gerhlein says the truck now gets 26 miles per gallon.

"We know it works on my wife's truck for about a 40 percent increase in gas mileage without the computerization," Gerhlein said. "The work that I do is concentrating on hydrogen used in more traditional engines, like we drive every day," Roberts said.

Roberts has worked on making hydrogen a fuel source for years. He says while hydrogen by itself is too expensive, when used with gasoline it does have promise.

"If you use a small amount of hydrogen there's a chance, and I think this is what many of us are looking for toward the future,” Roberts said.

Gerhlein believes this new technology is literally days away.

"All your liability is you have to clean out this canister probably once every six months, and you may have to clean the actual electrolysis producing cell out maybe once a year," Gerhlein said.

Drivers also have to add very inexpensive chemicals with the water to create the hydrogen gas.

There are plans for hydrogen generators all over the Internet. However, Gerhlein says 98 percent of them won't produce enough hydrogen to help much.

None of them come with a computer to help today's car read and understand the additional source of fuel except the one he is researching. Gerhlein's hydrogen generator costs $1,500 to have installed in your vehicle.

"But if you're driving from Pipe Creek to San Antonio every day, and you can make it run at double the gas mileage for $1,500, our research says that after 11,000 miles, the system’s paid for itself. And the system runs an indefinite period of time," Gerhlein said.

There could be a couple of other benefits, too. According to Gerhlein, burning hydrogen also cleans out the engine, has less toxic emissions and would pass Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Roberts says that is possible, but it is also possible that the hydrogen generator could burn worse.

"Today, just putting a device onto the engine, without changing the engine in a more drastic way, about 5 percent fuel economy improvement is the best I would expect," Roberts said.

The Southwest Research Institute is testing the hydrogen generator, and Gerhlein says if researchers tell him it's for real, maybe it won't be long before you can have one under your hood.

"Americans won World War II with people who invented things when they needed them, at that time. We've been to the moon. We've been the space race leaders for years. Our aircraft are the best there is because Americans will find a way around a bad situation, and there's a lot of folks working on this right now. And somebody's going to pop the right unit out into the populace to do exactly what we're talking about today," Gerhlein said.

Even Stone Oak commuters taking the bus to lower transportation costs

Link to article here.

Now if this doesn't wake-up the politicians and the pro-toll crowd, they're simply paid to be blind to the economic realities our families face. The median income in the zip code where this Via Express Bus route begins is $90,000 a year. If "those people" who make so much money are clamoring for ways to reduce their gas bill, what makes the tollers think "those people" have the discretionary income to pay tolls on top of their already too expensive commutes? They don't.

When you consider the expensive homes and the property tax and energy bills on those homes, the car payments, and higher grocery bills for growing families in Stone Oak, that $90,000 may sound like a lot but it doesn't go as far as it did when "those people" moved to Stone Oak. No matter what income level, the taxpayers don't have endless amounts of money to spend on transportation, though politicians enact tax policy as though they're a well that never runs dry.

Ken Rodriguez: Stone Oak residents are filling up buses
Express-News
05/20/2008
It's 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, and Connie Casanova is waiting for a ride to work.

She has lots of company.

In the far northern reaches of San Antonio, a crowd is growing around a bench at the lone bus stop in Stone Oak.

Men with briefcases, women in professional attire — all are headed downtown on VIA Express Route No. 6.“These are my friends,” Casanova says from a Wal-Mart parking lot at Loop 1604 and U.S. 281, filled with trucks, SUVs and minivans. “More and more people are riding. It's amazing.”

Casanova and many of her friends live in ZIP code 78258, where the median household income exceeds $90,000.

The Stone Oak community ranks among the city's most affluent, but residents are still trying to combat rising fuel costs.

That's one reason the No. 6 Express set a record last month with 12,515 riders.

From April '07 to April '08, VIA Metropolitan Transit ridership rose 15.6 percent across the city. In Stone Oak, ridership jumped 23 percent.


Casanova is no newcomer. She started taking the No. 6 Express more than two years ago. At the time, the route was carrying 5,513 passengers a month, and Casanova could buy a gallon of regular unleaded gasoline for about $2.10.

Around the corner from her home today, a gallon of regular has soared to $3.69.

Casanova says it costs $55 to fill her Acura Legend with gas. A monthly bus pass costs $25 — but Casanova gets it for $15 through a discount at work.

“I save at least $250 a month in gas and parking,” she says, “plus all the wear and tear on my car.”

There are other benefits. Casanova enjoys a stress-free commute to the office. She can read the newspaper. She can chat with friends.

“I'm a true believer,” she says. “You wouldn't know how beneficial it is unless you ride it.”

Casanova, 55, works in external affairs for AT&T Inc. The way she raves about the No. 6 Express, you'd think she worked in public affairs for VIA.

She says she feels sorry for people who ride to work alone, wasting time and gas.

Then she says, “You should take a ride. Really, you should.”

I rode the No. 6 Express for a column in May 2006. I described the commute as cool, clean and convenient. The bus dropped me off two blocks from the Express-News.

There's much to like about the public transportation. My only problem with the VIA system is mobility after I get to the office.

How am I supposed to get to a breaking story across town?

Or how am I going to meet a source who only wants to share critical information at some out-of-the-way location?

Other riders shared similar problems. Some said they only take the bus on days they have no appointments outside the office.

Connie Casanova doesn't have that issue. But she has a backup plan in case of an emergency: Taxi vouchers. Casanova bought four of them for $5 through a VIA Care Program.

She used one the other day to help a fellow passenger get to his wife after he passed out.

Like other buses, the No. 6 Express gives riders options. The first one pulls out of Wal-Mart at 5:39 a.m.

I showed up at 5:45 a.m. Tuesday and found a number of riders waiting for the next bus beneath a full moon.

Two hours later, Casanova was extolling the virtues of VIA when the No. 6 Express arrived.

By the time she finished, it was almost standing room only.

Delisi tapped for new Chair has ZERO transportation experience

Link to article here.

Love the quote about the appointment of Deirdre Delisi as the new Transportation Commission Chair from our friend Sal Costello in Austin, Founder of the Texas Toll Party:

"She has zero transportation experience. Maybe she drives to work, but that's about it...This is an agency that deals with billions of our tax dollars for transportation, and this person has no experience. That's frightening. What she does bring to the table is she's Gov. Perry's highway henchwoman."

It would be funny if it weren't so painfully true.

May 18, 2008
Diplomacy key for transportation chair
Perry appointee already scrutinized by lawmakers
By PEGGY FIKAC
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

PROFILE: DEIRDRE DELISI

• Age : 35• Education : Duke University, bachelor's degree in political science, 1994; Stanford University, master's degree in international policy studies, 1995.

• Family : Husband, Ted, political consultant; two children, twins Will and David, nearly 1.

Experience

• Chief of staff, Gov. Rick Perry, 2004-07• Deputy chief of staff, Gov. Rick Perry, 2000-01,

2002-04

• Campaign manager, Texans for Rick Perry,

2001-02

• Bush for President,

1999-2000

• Special assistant, Lt. Gov. Rick Perry, 1998-99

• Texans for Rick Perry (lieutenant governor's race), 1997-98

• Legislative assistant, Sen. Bill Ratliff, 1996-97

• Texas Department of Commerce, 1996

• Lamar Alexander for President, 1995-96

AUSTIN — Deirdre Delisi once aspired to be a diplomat, and Gov. Rick Perry may have finally granted her wish.

As head of the Texas Transportation Commission, Perry's former chief of staff will test her diplomatic skills in an emotion-filled arena in which a state senator has already called her a "political hack."

In an early sign of her peacemaking potential, the 35-year-old Delisi scheduled one of her first meetings as chair with that senator, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas.

"I was left with the impression that she genuinely wants a new and fresh start for the commission, and I can tell you the Legislature wants that, too," said Carona, who publicly tangled with the former chairman, the late Ric Williamson, as Williamson pushed Perry's vision of private investment in public tollways as a key to meeting mobility needs.

Department under review

The Texas Department of Transportation is under review by lawmakers who've sought to rein in new privately run toll roads and are distrustful of the agency's funding figures. There's also an outcry from many Texans incensed over toll proposals and the possible route of the Perry-pushed Trans-Texas Corridor."Drinking from the fire hydrant," is how Delisi described her first days on the job, with months to serve before the Senate next year decides on confirming her appointment.

Focused on meeting huge transportation needs, she describes private investment in toll roads as a tool, noting lawmakers are considering others. She's quick to emphasize the need to work with local officials.

Asked what role a gas-tax increase might play in the mobility picture, she gives an answer that may be diplomatic enough to please lawmakers who felt that Williamson pushed Perry's wishes too hard at the expense of their own.

"That's a decision that the Legislature is going to make," she said. "I don't get a vote."

'Whatever it takes'

Delisi was born in Montreal, grew up in Nashville, Tenn., became a U.S. citizen at 17 and wanted a diplomatic career after getting degrees at Duke and Stanford.When a U.S. Foreign Service hiring freeze turned her interest to politics, she joined the GOP presidential campaign of Lamar Alexander and met the man who'd lure her to Texas, now-husband Ted Delisi.

Other jobs included a stint on George W. Bush's first presidential campaign, but since late 1997 she has mostly had political and policy roles with Perry, including managing his notoriously tough 2002 race for governor against Laredo Democrat Tony Sanchez.

Delisi resigned as Perry's chief of staff last summer when she had twins, born 10 weeks early and weighing less than 3 pounds each. They're healthy and nearly 1 now.

"I think it would be great for my children to grow up in that environment of understanding what the value of public service is," she said.

Ted, a political consultant, is juggling other complications in addition to being what he calls Mr. Mom when her schedule takes her away. To avoid the appearance of conflict, he ended a joint venture with Hillco Partners because the lobbying firm handles transportation issues, though he said he hadn't done such work himself.

"Any job that takes 95 percent of your time and pays $15,000 a year always makes for an interesting conversation inside the household," he deadpanned of the appointment. (The job pays her $15,914 per year.) "But it's an honor. She believes strongly in public service, and I think she feels strongly there is some new and needed enthusiasm and ... diplomacy."

The new chairwoman quickly plunged in with visits to transportation officials and lawmakers from Dallas to El Paso.

Delisi also will continue to advise Perry and do consulting with her husband through Delisi Communications. She doesn't know how many hours the commission job will take: "Whatever it takes," she said.

Long days aren't new to Delisi, a veteran of campaigns and legislative sessions, including last year's when, pregnant, she rebuffed her doctor's orders to stop work: "We still had a week of session, plus the whole veto-sign period," she said.

Will and David were born after the session adjourned.

"The governor called me and said, 'How's my girl?' " said Delisi's friend Jennifer Lustina, another 30-something political veteran. "I said, 'Governor, how do you think your girl's doing? She's doing how you know she's doing. She's just steady.' "

That's her hallmark, Lustina added: "Nothing rattles Deirdre. ... You can say she's tough. You can say maybe she's overly driven once she starts really pushing on something. But you can't say she's a hack. She's smart as hell."

'Highway henchwoman'

It's that other hallmark — her long history with Perry — that troubles critics."She has zero transportation experience. Maybe she drives to work, but that's about it," said Sal Costello, who founded TexasTollParty.com to oppose the way tollways were planned under Perry.

"This is an agency that deals with billions of our tax dollars for transportation, and this person has no experience. That's frightening. What she does bring to the table is she's Gov. Perry's highway henchwoman."

Delisi calls her strongest asset her knowledge of the Legislature, though lawmakers' views on her run the gamut.

Some said they don't know her, and Carona (before their meeting) said she was known as difficult to work with. Others offered praise, including Rep. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, House Ways and Means Committee chair, who said she's focused, capable and "no nonsense."

Politics may be an asset

As Delisi's home senator, Kirk Watson, D-Austin, a TxDOT critic, could have blocked her appointment. He said he didn't know her before, but she impressed him with her intelligence and support for more local decision-making and more TxDOT accountability."Some people have said she's too political. I frankly think that that ought to be one of her assets," Watson said. "She will be smart enough to know it ain't working right now."

Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, vice chair of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission reviewing TxDOT, heard from Delisi after dubbing her "a political 'yes man.' " They met, and "wait and see" is his mantra.

"Some people have suggested ... Delisi is the one person that can get the governor to change his mind," he said. "I don't know the answer to that."

McCain tied to lobbyist for Trans Texas Corridor, toll roads

Link to article here.

The Loeffler Tuggey (et al) law firm represents Zachry Construction, the major toll road player in Texas who partnered with Cintra to win the development rights to the Trans Texas Corridor and landed the first privatized toll road contract in Texas for SH 130. So the connection to McCain is clear just as it was with Giuliani before him.

A Top McCain Aide Quits
Departure Over Ties To Lobbying Group Is Fourth in 2 Weeks
By ELIZABETH HOLMES
May 19, 2008

The McCain campaign lost another top aide Sunday over ties to lobbying, the fourth such departure in less than two weeks.

Thomas Loeffler, a former U.S. representative from Texas, resigned from his post as a national finance committee and campaign co-chairman, a campaign spokesman confirmed Sunday.

Mr. Loeffler is the founder of The Loeffler Group, a San Antonio lobbying shop that has worked on behalf of AT&T Inc. and Southwest Airlines Co. as well as foreign interests, including Saudi Arabia.

Mr. Loeffler's resignation continues the fallout from a new policy that John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, instituted last week requiring full disclosure of involvement with lobbying firms and other independent political groups.

The policy bans staffers and aides from being registered lobbyists or working on behalf of foreign interests. It allows unpaid volunteers to continue as registered lobbyists as long as they disclose those interests and don't lobby or advise Sen. McCain on behalf of those interests.

Although Mr. Loeffler qualified under the latter terms, his high rank at the campaign forced him to make a decision, said Charlie Black, a senior aide to Sen. McCain and a former lobbyist.

"Senior staff people cannot be registered to lobby," said Mr. Black. Mr. Loeffler didn't answer requests for comment.

Mr. Black severed his ties to the lobbying firm BKSH & Associates Worldwide this year. Campaign manager Rick Davis still owns a stake in his lobbying organization, Davis Manafort Inc., but is no longer paid by the firm.

"Everybody's making decisions to see if they can live with [the new policy]," said Mark Salter, a senior McCain adviser.

Mr. Loeffler's resignation follows that of three other advisers. Doug Goodyear and Doug Davenport left on May 10 and 11, respectively, because of their involvement with DCI Group, a firm that once worked for Myanmar's military junta. Last week, Eric Burgeson, a McCain adviser on energy policy, was jettisoned from the campaign because he was a registered lobbyist on the same topic.

Mr. Loeffler's departure is arguably the most significant because of his reputation as a successful fund-raiser. He was named to his finance-committee position in December 2006 and is credited with helping the campaign limp through its cash-strapped implosion last summer.

Mr. Loeffler has a long history with Republican presidential campaigns. He served as Texas co-chairman for former President George H.W. Bush in 1988 and was national deputy finance chairman for Bob Dole's failed bid in 1996. Mr. Loeffler was also a major fund-raiser for the current President Bush, serving as a "Pioneer" in 2000 and a "Super-Ranger" in 2004, meaning he raised more than $100,000 and more than $300,000, respectively, in those elections.

In a release dated March 8, 2007, that announced Mr. Loeffler's position of general chairman of the campaign, Sen. McCain called Mr. Loeffler "a good friend" and said he would play a "very important role in our campaign."

The policy, dubbed "McCain Campaign Conflict Policy," was made mandatory last week after questions arose about the ties to lobbying firms by staff and volunteers.

The policy also bans involvement with so-called 527s -- independent groups named for a section of the tax code that are able to accept limitless donations -- and other such groups.

OK tears down highway replaces with a park

Link to article here.

Vancouver has no highways in its city limits and experiences little congestion. There is something to be said for parkways and boulevards in our downtown and historic areas. This is the best possible solution for Hwy 290 in Austin and Bandera Rd. in San Antonio.

Oklahoma City swaps highway for park
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
May 14, 2008

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma has a radical solution for repairing the state's busiest highway.
Tear it down. Build a park.

The aging Crosstown Expressway — an elevated 4.5-mile stretch of Interstate 40 — will be demolished in 2012. An old-fashioned boulevard and a mile-long park will be constructed in its place.

Oklahoma City is doing what many cities dream about: saying goodbye to a highway.

More than a dozen cities have proposals to remove highways from downtowns. Cleveland wants to remove a freeway that blocks its waterfront. Syracuse, N.Y., wants to rid itself of an interstate that cuts the city in half.


"Highways don't belong in cities. Period," says John Norquist, who was mayor of Milwaukee when it closed a highway. "Europe didn't do it. America did. And our cities have paid the price."

In the 1950s and '60s, mayors, governors and planners thought downtown highways would help keep cities alive by paving the way for suburban commuters to get in and out. Today, many of those same groups view downtown highways as a plague, wrecking neighborhoods, dividing cities and blocking waterfronts. Many big cities have long-term plans that call for eliminating some downtown highways or reducing their scale.

The future of many of these highways will be decided in the next few years because the old roads are nearing the end of their life expectancies. The federal, state and local governments must decide whether it's smarter and cheaper to renovate highways or to build new routes.

Boost to downtown

Some cities want traffic routed around downtowns. Others want tunnels or highways that pass under streets. A number of cities want to close highways and replace them with — nothing.

In Oklahoma City, the interstate will be moved five blocks from downtown to an old railroad line. The new 10-lane highway, expected to carry 120,000 vehicles daily, will be placed in a trench so deep that city streets can run atop it, as if the highway weren't there.

The old highway will be converted into a tree-lined boulevard city officials hope will become Oklahoma City's marquee street.

By tearing down the Crosstown Expressway, the city hopes to spur development of 80 city blocks stretching from downtown to the Oklahoma River — an area that contains vacant lots, car repair shops and a few small homes.

"We've always been a good place to live, but we've never had a city we could show off," Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett says. "Moving the expressway makes it possible for a day to come when hundreds or thousands of people will live downtown."

The project will cost $557 million, mostly federal and state funds. The city will pay to spruce up the boulevard, build parks and put a pedestrian bridge over the new below-ground interstate.

Oklahoma City is doing what many cities want to do but have not gotten federal or state money to accomplish:

•Buffalo wants to get rid of its Skyway, an elevated highway that blocks access to Lake Erie.

•Nashville wants to replace 8 miles of interstate — parts of I-65, I-40 and I-24 — with parks and neighborhood streets.

•Washington has considered demolishing the Whitehurst Freeway, an elevated road that runs along the Potomac River in the tony Georgetown neighborhood. The plan is on hold because of cost.

•Akron, Ohio, launched a $2 million study on tearing down its 2.2 mile Innerbelt that leads downtown from I-76/I-77.

Highway removal proposals are also being discussed in Chicago, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Baltimore, Louisville, New Haven, Conn., Trenton, N.J., and Niagara Falls, N.Y. The Sheridan Expressway in the Bronx is another target.

On the waterfront

Many unpopular highways run along rivers or lakes. The path made sense when they were built because the route was flat, in existing rights-of-way and connected highways and busy ports.

Now, especially in old, industrial cities, waterfronts are often vacant, leaving the prettiest scenery blighted by highways carrying traffic passing through.

Cleveland wants to convert its West Shoreway, next to Lake Erie, from a 50-mph freeway into a tree-lined boulevard. "There was less appreciation for the scenic value of waterfront when the shoreway was built," says Cleveland Planning Commission director Robert Brown. "We need to connect the city to its parks and lakefront again."

In other cities, highways cut cities in half. "It's our very own Berlin Wall," Syracuse, N.Y., council member Van Robinson says of I-81.

Like many urban interstates, I-81 demolished a black neighborhood. The interstate has created a tale of two cities: thriving Syracuse University on one side, struggling downtown on the other.

When Robinson proposed getting rid of I-81 — sending through-traffic outside the city — many people thought the idea was crazy.

Since then, the president of Syracuse University and many local officials have supported evicting the interstate from downtown. The state is comparing the cost of renovating or relocating it.

Doug Currey, regional director of the New York State Department of Transportation, says taking down urban highways is sometimes the right thing to do — and sometimes not.

"No two situations are exactly alike," says Currey, who oversees highways in the New York City area.

Cost is the big obstacle to removing highways. "Generally, maintaining what you have is cheaper than building something new," Currey says.

San Francisco tore down its elevated Embarcadero Freeway, damaged in an earthquake in 1989, and replaced it with a palm-tree-lined boulevard serving local traffic. Since then, the bay-front neighborhood has blossomed, and traffic has been absorbed by city streets.

Currey witnessed the same thing in New York City when the West Side Highway was demolished. An asphalt truck plunged through the elevated road in 1973 and, rather than rebuild the decrepit road, it became the nation's first major highway tear-down.

Once the highway was gone, the Chelsea, TriBeCa and West Village neighborhoods came back to life. Traffic adapted. "It worked in Manhattan," Currey says.

NYT: Paul Krugman's take on high gas prices & how to cope

Link to article here.

Stranded in Suburbia
By Paul Krugman
The New York Times Monday 19 May 2008

Berlin - I have seen the future, and it works.

O.K., I know that these days you're supposed to see the future in China or India, not in the heart of "old Europe."

But we're living in a world in which oil prices keep setting records, in which the idea that global oil production will soon peak is rapidly moving from fringe belief to mainstream assumption. And Europeans who have achieved a high standard of living in spite of very high energy prices - gas in Germany costs more than $8 a gallon - have a lot to teach us about how to deal with that world.


If Europe's example is any guide, here are the two secrets of coping with expensive oil: own fuel-efficient cars, and don't drive them too much.

Notice that I said that cars should be fuel-efficient - not that people should do without cars altogether. In Germany, as in the United States, the vast majority of families own cars (although German households are less likely than their U.S. counterparts to be multiple-car owners).

But the average German car uses about a quarter less gas per mile than the average American car. By and large, the Germans don't drive itsy-bitsy toy cars, but they do drive modest-sized passenger vehicles rather than S.U.V.'s and pickup trucks.

In the near future I expect we'll see Americans moving down the same path. We've already done it once: over the course of the 1970s and 1980s, the average mileage of U.S. passenger vehicles rose about 50 percent, as Americans switched to smaller, lighter cars.

This improvement stalled with the rise of S.U.V.'s during the cheap-gas 1990s. But now that gas costs more than ever before, even after adjusting for inflation, we can expect to see mileage rise again.

Admittedly, the next few years will be rough for families who bought big vehicles when gas was cheap, and now find themselves the owners of white elephants with little trade-in value. But raising fuel efficiency is something we can and will do.

Can we also drive less? Yes - but getting there will be a lot harder.

There have been many news stories in recent weeks about Americans who are changing their behavior in response to expensive gasoline - they're trying to shop locally, they're canceling vacations that involve a lot of driving, and they're switching to public transit.

But none of it amounts to much. For example, some major public transit systems are excited about ridership gains of 5 or 10 percent. But fewer than 5 percent of Americans take public transit to work, so this surge of riders takes only a relative handful of drivers off the road.

Any serious reduction in American driving will require more than this - it will mean changing how and where many of us live.

To see what I'm talking about, consider where I am at the moment: in a pleasant, middle-class neighborhood consisting mainly of four- or five-story apartment buildings, with easy access to public transit and plenty of local shopping.

It's the kind of neighborhood in which people don't have to drive a lot, but it's also a kind of neighborhood that barely exists in America, even in big metropolitan areas. Greater Atlanta has roughly the same population as Greater Berlin - but Berlin is a city of trains, buses and bikes, while Atlanta is a city of cars, cars and cars.

And in the face of rising oil prices, which have left many Americans stranded in suburbia - utterly dependent on their cars, yet having a hard time affording gas - it's starting to look as if Berlin had the better idea.

Changing the geography of American metropolitan areas will be hard. For one thing, houses last a lot longer than cars. Long after today's S.U.V.'s have become antique collectors' items, millions of people will still be living in subdivisions built when gas was $1.50 or less a gallon.

Infrastructure is another problem. Public transit, in particular, faces a chicken-and-egg problem: it's hard to justify transit systems unless there's sufficient population density, yet it's hard to persuade people to live in denser neighborhoods unless they come with the advantage of transit access.

And there are, as always in America, the issues of race and class. Despite the gentrification that has taken place in some inner cities, and the plunge in national crime rates to levels not seen in decades, it will be hard to shake the longstanding American association of higher-density living with poverty and personal danger.

Still, if we're heading for a prolonged era of scarce, expensive oil, Americans will face increasingly strong incentives to start living like Europeans - maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.

American Free Press highlights Texans' fight against TTC

Link to article here.

TEXANS BATTLE TTC
Throngs hit streets of Austin to rally against Trans-Texas Corridor
By Mark Anderson
American Free Press
May 2008

TEXANS UNITING FOR REFORM and Freedom (TURF) marched up
Congress Avenue and held a big rally on the capitol steps in Austin April 5, short circuiting an apparent underhanded effort to suppress grassroots turnout against the proposed Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC).

This is the second straight year that ranchers and various other opponents have converged on Austin to passionately voice their opposition to the TTC, or NAFTA Superhighway, an invasive mega-tollway network that would carve out at least 584,000 acres of Texas land, forcing most landowners to sell their properties at a big loss.


With at least two main arteries (TTC-69 and TTC-35) and numerous offshoots, the overall TTC would have 4,000-plus miles of pavement in Texas alone—with its huge main sections about a quarter-mile wide, including rail and utility lines—and would fan out across the United States, forever changing the face of the nation.

The TTC actually is a transnational highway system for the contemplated North American Union, designed to meld Mexico, the U.S. and Canada together as one big, happy family.

According to a TURF news release provided before the rally, this organization had received calls from panicked TTC opponents who had heard some residents claim that TTC-69 has been stopped.

“Senate Finance Committee Chairman Senator Steve Ogden told Walker County Commissioner, B.J. Gaines, that the Trans Texas Corridor I-69 project is over, scrapped . . .” the news release stated. “The word is spreading like wildfire among elected officials in the path of TTC-69, including the mayor of Kendleton, just in time to tell constituents: ‘There’s no need to attend that rally in Austin this weekend since the TTC-69 project is over.’”

But TURF leader Terri Hall, a San Antonio resident who recently appeared on CNN’s Lou Dobbs national news program to explain the threat the TTC poses to land ownership and national sovereignty, noted that there’s no reason to believe the TTC has been scrapped.

“At this juncture, it’s naïve to believe word-one from politicians or TxDOT, an agency run amok, that is misusing our taxpayer money to lobby in favor of the TransTexas Corridor and prone to $1 billion in accounting errors. The TTC-69 public comment period isn’t even completed yet, and the environmental hearings were completed only weeks ago, and now they’re trying to convince taxpayers the project is dead? Who are they kidding?”

Hall told AFP that despite the apparent effort of Kendleton Mayor Carolyn Jones to suppress turnout, a delegation of perhaps a dozen people from that city attended the rally to protest the TTC. If ever completed, the TTC would set the stage for applying tolls to freeways, because freeways provide a non-toll alternative that could doom the TTC mega-tollway plan. The TTC would be operated by a Spanish firm known as Cintra that would reap the profits while partnering with U.S. politicians to ensure that eminent domain and law enforcement powers are wielded.

Hank Gilbert, TURF board member and rally coordinator, wants certifiable proof the TTC is dead, whenever that day may come. He was quoted as saying in the TURF news release: “The claim the TTC-69 project is over is an underhanded, 11th-hour dirty trick to sabotage the people’s right to protest this project, and we’re asking (that) every state law, every Transportation Commission Minute Order, every local Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) and tolling authority plan authorizing the Trans Texas Corridor be immediately revoked in writing. Until that’s done, we’re pressing ahead. It’s clear we can’t trust a word that comes out of the mouths of TxDOT or politicians.”

The April 5 rally was well-attended. “It was great; it was several thousand people like last year,” said Hall, whose other group, the San Antonio Toll Party, held a meeting attended by AFP in January, where various plans were announced, including an ongoing effort to encourage anti-TCC, anti-toll candidates to run for public office at all levels.

The “Don’t Mess with Texas TURF, Stop the TTC & Tolls Rally” included various speakers, such as representatives of the Teamsters, Eagle Forum, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, Oklahoma State Sen. Randy Brogdon (who passed legislation to stop the TTC from coming through his state), and local leaders, including Mae Smith, the mayor of Holland, Texas. She heads the state’s first-ever sub-regional Planning Commission.

That group seeks to put a roadblock in the way of TTC-35. Such local units, organized under state law, can help form a tighter network against the TTC. Rallies are all good and well, but they may or may not convince TTC-backers in the legislature and elsewhere to back down, said Mayor Smith. Therefore, as she told AFP, she formed the East-Central Regional Planning Commission in August of 2007.

On Jan. 31, 2008, Ms. Smith and the mayors of three other nearby cities in Bell County informed officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that the Texas Transportation Department (TxDOT), in their estimation, is skipping steps in the environmental impact study that is being carried out and includes public hearings across Texas.

AFP attended an early-February public hearing in McAllen, Tex., where local officials and others with a vested interest supported the TTC, but most of the citizens spoke against it or were skeptical. Many of the local officials, such as McAllen Mayor Mike Perez, believe that the TTC would help boost local economies. Smith observed that some major cities (McAllen is a large city on the Mexican border) may see some residual benefits, but the bigger picture is what matters, she said.

Smith—whose regional commission includes Holland businessman Ralph Snyder and a school board member from each town—says it’s vitally important for many more such commissions to form and band together to halt the TTC. But, to be fair, she added that anti-TTC people need to be ready to explain to TxDOT that there are legitimate alternatives, such as expanding existing freeways, that would be genuine infrastructure improvements.

Helping TxDOT re-focus its efforts would steer it away from pushing the TTC, which—if ever shoved into the “heart of Texas”—will usher in an even bigger invasion of Chinese/Asian goods, hauled via truck and rail into the U.S., starting at Mexican seaports and heading north—flooding the U.S. with even more sub-quality, often hazardous products (and onward to Canada).

The implications for consumer and public safety—with these shoddy products hauled in aboard often-substandard Mexican trucks—are enormous, along with the fact that the ongoing implementation of NAFTA that the TTC signals will continue to unravel the already critically ill American economy that needs its thrifty middle class restored if it’s ever to truly prosper.

With people such as Terri Hall, Mae Smith and several others keeping up the pressure, America has a chance. For, as many observers have noted, it is in Texas where the TTC’s funeral must be held. It cannot be allowed to take root there, lest the NAFTA network spread like a cancer across the nation, tearing asunder what little remains of U.S. manufacturing with the infusion of imports made by ultra-cheap labor, against which American goods cannot compete—since U.S. goods are saturated with huge tax and regulatory costs that stifle production and must be passed on to the consumer.

"Red hot" infrastructure market turns cold, especially in Texas

Link to press release here.

Best quote in the press release...."Texas is the coldest market." You bet it is...we can't afford foreign-controlled toll roads at 3-4 times the price of FREEways! This shift to privatization and tolling is 100% about greed, the highway lobby, and politicians thinking they can blame someone else for raising taxes 20-100 times more per mile than we pay in gas tax. With gas prices lowering our standard of living at an alarming rate, it's past time to end this disastrous policy of tolling freeways.

RED HOT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION MARKETS BEGIN TO COOL

WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, May 21, 2008 -/E-Wire/-- Design and construction markets related to environment, infrastructure, and facilities began to slow their rate of growth in 2007, and growth rates are expected to decline still further in 2008, according to the 20th annual State-of-the-Industry Report delivered by management consultants Farkas Berkowitz & Company to an invitation-only conference of CEOs from leading architectural, engineering, and construction firms.

Designers for transportation, power, water quality, remediation, and facilities in the U.S. enjoyed, in aggregate, a robust growth rate of 12 percent in 2007, down slightly from the phenomenal 15 percent growth rate of 2006. Alan Farkas, Managing Director of Farkas Berkowitz & Company, explained that the volatile power engineering market masked a more significant growth rate decline. He explained, "Excluding power engineering, the aggregate growth rate of the remaining segments in 2007 were half that of 2006, declining from a 14 percent growth rate in 2006 to a 7 percent growth rate last year."


Farkas Berkowitz & Company forecasts that the five infrastructure markets in aggregate will grow 5 percent in 2008 and 7 percent in 2009. "We expect the current economic slowdown to affect all major markets, but the timing and significance will vary," said Mr. Farkas. He noted that preliminary estimates of first quarter 2008 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate was 0.6 percent, unchanged from the 0.6 percent rate of growth in the 4th quarter of 2007. The slowdown in growth coupled with the housing crisis, rising fuel prices, and the disruption in the municipal bond market will result in a slowing of growth in design markets related to transportation, water quality, and remediation. The slow rates of growth will be partially offset by the still rapidly growing design markets for power and non-residential facilities. Moreover, the U.S.-based design firms doing business abroad will continue to see more robust rates of growth from international projects. Mr. Farkas pointed out, "Longer term, infrastructure needs should bolster strong design and construction markets well into the next decade."

Transportation, Engineering and Construction

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the transportation engineering market grew 4 percent to $9.8 billion in 2007. Mr. Farkas noted, "This was the second consecutive year of declining growth rates. We saw the growth rate peak at 12 percent in 2005, decline to 7 percent in 2006, and we expect the rate of growth in this design market to decline further in 2008 and 2009. We look for a 2-3 percent growth rate this year and no growth in 2009."

Exhibit 1 U.S. Transportation Engineering Market, 2006-2009 ($ Billions)

Chart 1.JPG
Source: Farkas Berkowitz & Company Actuals based on ENR Top 500 Design Firm Survey
Mr. Farkas went on to point out that a shrinking highway and bridge market in 2008 and 2009 would offset growing rail, aviation, and ports and harbor segments. Highway construction increased 7 percent in 2007. According to the U.S. Census Bureau's annual value of construction put in place, the construction market has increased 30 percent over the three years 2004-2007. However, Mr. Farkas noted, "Unfortunately, construction costs have increased more than 30 percent since 2004. Therefore, real dollar investment in this important asset class actually declined over the three-year period."

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the engineering market for highways and bridges will contract by 5 percent in 2008 and contract another 5 percent in 2009. "We have the highway equivalent of 'the perfect storm.' We could call it 'the perfect pile-up.' A confluence of political and economic forces will subject this market to extraordinary pressure." The report quotes experts who forecast a $3 - $4 billion deficit in the highway trust fund, which could result in a cut back in obligations of $16 billion in federal FY 2009. The firm forecasts that we will see another significant delay in the re-authorization of the Federal law, now due to expire on September 30, 2009. Meanwhile, high gasoline prices are causing motorists to cut back on driving, resulting in a decline of revenues flowing into state highway trust funds.

Mr. Farkas explained, "Given the growing importance of local and state sources of highway funding, we find that the outlook varies considerably by state and region. We look for strongly growing markets on the West Coast and most of the Southwest." The report notes that the hottest state market is California, thanks in large part to funding from the self-help counties. The coldest market is Texas, where spending on highway capital improvements is expected to decline from $5 billion in 2006 to less than $3 billion in 2008. Florida and Georgia were also cited as relatively weak markets.

Public-private partnerships and toll roads will be a positive force in the marketplace over the coming years, but neither funding mechanism will have a significant impact this year or next. The firm believes that public-private partnerships, particularly for greenfield projects, will be increasingly favored, and the development of toll roads, especially for arterial highways, will help over time to narrow the funding gap.

Farkas Berkowitz & Company estimates that the transit engineering market grew at an 8-10 percent growth rate in 2007, showing a steady acceleration from an estimated low single digit rate of growth in 2005. The freight rail market seemed to slow for engineers in 2007, but the firm predicts bright long-term prospects. "The cost advantage that railroads have over trucking, with a better than three-to-one fuel efficiency rating, will continue to allow freight rail to broaden its market from one of hauling raw materials to transporting containerized consumer goods." explained Mr. Farkas.

Turning to the aviation market, construction on airports grew 14 percent in 2007. The U.S. Census Bureau reports that most of this growth is accounted for by terminal construction, while work on runways and taxiways remained virtually unchanged from 2006. The firm estimates that design work for airports increased 5 percent in 2007, equaling the growth rate in 2006. Mr. Farkas reported that firms serving this market expect strong double digit growth in 2009 and 2010. Farkas Berkowitz & Company, however, is projecting a 5-10 percent growth rate this year and next. As Mr. Farkas explained, "With jet fuel costs increasing 70 percent in the last 12 months, the pressure on airfares is too strong to ignore. As airfares increase, we expect passengers to cut back on travel. As passengers cut back on travel, some airport authorities will delay their expansion plans."

The firm reports that engineers serving ports and harbors enjoyed their fifth consecutive year of growth greater than 10 percent. In 2007 firms benefited from the conduct of due-diligence studies to support a change in terminal ownership, with more terminals now in the hands of international shippers, port operators, and private equity funds. "We look for growth in the engineering market to slow in 2008 to about 5 percent, but then increase in 2009 and beyond as ports, particularly in the Southeast and the Gulf Coast prepare for the widening of the Panama Canal," said Mr. Farkas.

HB 300 update: VICTORY #1 comes with a sting

HB 300 Update

VICTORY #1 comes with a sting

GOOD NEWS:
NO TOLLS ON EXISTING ROADS, REPEAL OF TRANS TEXAS CORRIDOR, and ELECTED LEADERSHIP at TxDOT GET IN THE BILL!

BAD NEWS:
PRIVATE TOLL CONTRACTS SNUCK INTO BILL WHEN HALF THE HOUSE ABSENT!

SEE URGENT ACTION ITEM BELOW

Here's how it happened...

First, Rep. Jose Menendez of San Antonio withdrew his amendment to re-authorize the private toll contracts (CDAs) that sell our highways to foreign corporations & another BAD amendment involving CDAs by Wayne Smith of Baytown was also withdrawn during debate last night. There were actually three amendments to re-authorize private toll contracts and END the moratorium Texans demanded and they are: Rep. Jose Menendez of San Antonio, Rep. Stephen Frost of Atlanta, and Rep. Larry Phillips.

Last night when the majority of HB 300 was heard, the author of the bill, Rep. Carl Isett said that private toll contracts (CDAs) would be dealt with in committee next week, so House members thought disaster was averted. Then, this morning when they took up the rest of the bill with what was dubbed the non-controversial stuff, when half the House wasn't even on the floor, Phillips got his amendment voted through, without a recorded vote, without a whimper of opposition totally under the radar!

WE MUST STRIP Phillips' CDA sweetheart deals OUT ON THIRD READING OF THE BILL, HB 300, Monday!

THE GOOD NEWS:
Thanks to your calls and emails, we prevailed on many GOOD key battles against the BIG MONEY & lobbyists who have wined and dined our legislators for nearly a decade to swindle Texans into these sweetheart deals (while they laugh all the way to the bank). A HUGE hats off to the leadership of Rep. David Leibowitz of San Antonio and Rep. Lois Kolkhorst of Brenham for leading the charge to get these MAJOR amendments into HB 300. Texans owe them a HUGE debt of gratitude. They never faltered, they never wavered, they are true Texas HEROES of our cause! But this is just the first step. WE MUST STRIP OUT Phillips' private toll contract provision that sell our highways to the highest bidder UPON THIRD READING OF THE HOUSE BILL, HB 300, Monday!

Hang in there with us to see this through...

We're still sorting through all the various amendments, but the other BIG news is we changed the HORRIBLE loophole-laden language and amended HB 300 with a BULLET-PROOF prohibition on tolling existing roads! We've fought hard for 4 years (some of our folks in Austin have been fighting for going on 5 years) to FINALLY resolve this nightmare! We're on the edge of REAL victory. So stick with us!

Then, we also got a complete REPEAL of the Trans Texas Corridor into HB 300 (though Joe Pickett tried to strip it back out in a sneaky amendment). It's nothing short of a MIRACLE! On top of that, we managed to get ELECTED leadership at TxDOT! Though not a single elected commissioner, the consensus was behind Rep. Leibowitz' amendment to ELECT 14 REGIONAL commissioners and one statewide commissioner to run TxDOT. THAT IS AN ENORMOUS VICTORY for accountability and reform of this rogue agency!

Several of our other amendments also got in and some were withdrawn or tabled. HB 300 is a 200 page bill that had 166 proposed amendments, so when we get all the adopted amendments sorted out, y'all will be the first to know.

WE MUST FIGHT TO KEEP OUR AMENDMENTS IN THIS BILL!
HB 300 needs to survive a third reading in the House then...Next up, the Senate!

The Dallas/Ft. Worth delegation is in abject panic over the Leibowitz amendment prohibiting tolls on existing roads. They fear 820, 635, and others won't be able to move forward if the bill passes with his amendment. So there will still be a battle on the third reading of the bill, with North Texas legislators likely trying to carve out specific projects from the prohibition on tolling existing highways. So our folks in DFW had better flood your legislators with calls to have your voices heard.

Senators to the PEOPLE: "You won't get your amendments"...
Then, the REAL fight will be in the Senate where Senator John Carona told me pointblank at the beginning of the session that we the people would NOT get elected leadership at TxDOT, period! He also rammed private toll contracts (CDAs) through the Senate. In addition, Senator Robert Nichols told me that only HIS loophole-laden version of the bill dealing with tolling existing roads would pass this session.

What's at stake...
So get those phones ringing and keep them ringing! If we don't KILL CDAs, foreign corporations will have the power to control EVERY MILE WE DRIVE for a half century at a time! The deals already in the works will cost the average commuter over $3,000 a YEAR in new toll taxes. If we don't GET a REAL ban on tolling existing highways and get stuck with Nichols' loopholes, our freeways will be converted to tollways unabated!

CALL NOW!

Call your state legislators and tell them NO CDAs & keep the Leibowitz version of no tolls on existing roads! We will NOT accept their cow dung in order to get our good amendments!

Repeat this message...

1) No private toll contracts that sell our highways to foreign corporations (strip Phillips sneaky amendment to extend these contracts that end the moratorium!)
2) YES to Leibowitz' version of BAN on tolling existing roads (freeway to tollway conversions, a HUGE double tax rip-off)
3) No Trans Texas Corridor
4) YES to elected leadership at TxDOT

Find your state legislators here.

Call the Capitol switchboard (512) 463-4630 between 8 AM - 5 PM. To reach your legislators after 5 pm or over the weekend, get his/her direct phone numbers here...

You can also email your state legislators by using this formula:

Plug in the name of your STATE Representative to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Plug in the name of your STATE Senator to:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

But at this stage of the game,
PHONE CALLS ARE BETTER!

Macquarie eyes Austin airport for a Public Private Partnership

Link to article here.

Macquarie is the same company who bought dozens of Texas newspapers in the path of the Trans Texas Corridor (to control the criticism of the project to be sure), was a bidder on the Hwy 121 "crown jewel" of Texas toll roads and the US 281 & 1604 toll roads, and is a partner with Cintra on toll projects all over the world, including the Indiana Toll Road and Chicago Skyway. Rudy Giuliani has ties to Macquarie, and the Bush Administration hired Macquarie's division director to be the DOT's Chief Counsel. It also owns the Virginia toll road where they doubled the toll rates, and it's business model has been criticized by the same guy who first spotted Enron's dubious tactics. Now they want to lease the Austin Airport in another public private partnership (PPP) deal to maximize the airport's revenues and rip-off the taxpayers.

Macquarie circles airport in Texas
David Nason, New York correspondent
The Australian
May 08, 2008

THE Macquarie Group's airport ambitions in the US have spread to Texas, where its infrastructure division is in talks to lease all or part of the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in the Texas capital, Austin.

A Macquarie spokesman confirmed yesterday that discussions with Austin officials were under way but stressed they were at a "very preliminary stage", with no formal proposal for an ABIA takeover on the table.

According to some projections, leasing ABIA to a private operator could earn the city of Austin $US500 million ($526 million) annually.


The airport play comes as Macquarie and its Spanish toll roads partner Centra await a decision on a proposed 75-year lease for the Pennsylvania Turnpike, one of the US's busiest highways.

At least three consortiums have submitted bids with Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, who is expected to select his preferred operator sometime in the next week.

Mr Rendell wants to channel the lease payments -- possibly as much as $US18 billion over the life of the lease -- into Pennsylvania's ageing highways, bridges and mass transit systems. But he is facing opposition from legislators, voters and his own Turnpike Commission.

Opposition to airport privatisation in the US is also expected to be strong, especially if foreign companies are involved.

Under a Federal Aviation Administration pilot program introduced in 1966, US airports can be exempted from federal administration, but until now only Chicago's Midway Airport has actively pursued privatisation.

The program allows for up to five US airports to be leased to private operators, but the hurdles are many, including approval from the FAA and from 65 per cent of airlines using the airport.

Macquarie, which already operates airports in Sydney, Tokyo, Brussels, Copenhagen and Bristol in England, is one of six companies to have lodged a proposal with Chicago officials.

It now sees a second opportunity in Austin, where the push for privatisation is driven by federal laws that compel the city to spend airport revenues at the airport while other city-operated businesses such as Austin Energy and the Austin Convention Centre return their profits to the city.

Austin city councillor Brewster McCracken told the Austin Business Journal he was opposed to privatising public assets but regarded the airport as a separate issue because it provided no revenue to the city's general fund.

ABIA's total operating revenue for the 2007 fiscal year was $US81.9 million with $US17 million of that going back into the airport's capital fund.

Austin-Bergstrom is a former US Air Force Base 8km outside Austin that was only opened to civilian traffic in 1999, to replace a smaller airport. Last year, it serviced almost 8.9 million passengers, a record.


Globally, the Macquarie Group has some $US200 billion invested in infrastructure and it has targeted the US as its major infrastructure growth area.

Body: And for good reason. In a report last week, the US Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young said US transportation infrastructure investment was lagging far behind that of most other developed nations and that greater acceptance of public-private partnerships was the only practical answer.

It estimated the annual shortfall in funds for US transportation needs at a staggering $US170 billion, a figure that would rise sharply with the forecast population growth of 90 million over the next 35 years.

The report said vehicle miles travelled in the US had increased 95 per cent since 1980 while road capacity had increased only 3 per cent.

It said 24 per cent of US roads were in poor to mediocre condition and more than 25 per cent of bridges were structurally or functionally deficient.

Macquarie and Cintra already jointly own and operate toll roads in Illinois and Indiana.

Last month, electronic tolling started on the Indiana Toll Road with drivers using the automatic system getting their tolls frozen at current rates until 2016.

A spokesman for the Indiana Toll Road Concession Co, which operates the toll road, said the spirit of the toll freeze was to look after local users.

But in 2006, Macquarie Infrastructure Group chief executive Stephen Allen told investors in New York that the real advantage of automatic tolling was that people tended to think tolls were cheaper when they had an electronic tag.

"I call it the 'mobile phone effect'," Mr Allen said at the time. "How many people out there know the cost of a call on your mobile phone? Well, it's very expensive, I can assure you of that.

"It's the same thing with (electronic) tags. You go through, you hear the beep, you don't think about it. You pay your bill once a month. It's amazing how reaching into that pocket to get that three bucks seems a lot more painful than hearing that beep."

Allard: Why does the Lone Star State tolerate TxDOT’s failures?

Link to column here.

Once again, Ken Allard's poignant humor hits the nail on the head. Why do we tolerate TxDOT's failures? Where are the indictments and heads rolling? Short of TURF's lawsuit to stop their illegal lobbying and ad campaign, NO ONE in state law enforcement is doing didly-squat to prosecute or reform this agency. Our great hope is the Sunset Commission. God bless Senator Glenn Hegar who gets it!

Ken Allard: Why does the Lone Star State allow TxDOT's bureaucratic arrogance?
05/07/2008
San Antonio Express-News

The headlines might have read, “No Hope, No More,” but we have been on a collision course over the future of TxDOT ever since Gov. Perry's dismissal last week of interim commissioner Hope Andrade.

She succeeded chairman Rick Williamson, whose last wish was that his embattled agency might engage in a creative dialogue with its critics. He even reached out to ask for my help in connecting the agency with “some of the best minds at UTSA,” but his untimely passing prevented those possibilities.


The widely respected Andrade tried to continue his initiative, but certain fundamentals have emerged. Among them: to the extent that it can be controlled at all, TxDOT answers only to its political masters — and then only to some of them. When hauled before the Texas Senate earlier this year, agency leaders had no good explanations for some outrageous failings, including a billion-dollar accounting error and millions more wasted on lobbying for dubious pet projects.

Had a similar situation occurred in Washington, indictments might well have followed. But not in Texas. Sen. Glenn Hegar recently wrote that lawmakers' “concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor, the agency's policies, funding schemes, budget and construction priorities have (often) been met with contempt and disdain by TxDOT officials.” The mystery is why such bureaucratic arrogance is tolerated in the state that produced the legendary “Lonesome Dove” figures of Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae.

But if you think the agency isn't listening to your concerns, don't feel too badly. They don't listen to the Texas Legislature, either. In an interesting twist, Sen. Hegar also sits on a sunset committee charged with identifying “waste, duplication and inefficiency” among state agencies. Ironically, TxDOT's turn for review comes up this year. Can you think of some issues the sunset commissioners might want to look into? What kinds of minds produced the “My Favorite Martian” School of highway design, bewildering tourists and locals alike as they try to escape from the San Antonio airport? Even more interesting: Why is there apparently a requirement that all TxDOT engineers be Aggies?

There are, of course, far larger issues because if TxDOT and toll roads are the only answers, we're probably not asking the right questions. County Judge Nelson Wolff recently raised the possibility of light rail. Until recently, there was the assumption that toll roads were the only alternative or, according to Sen. Hegar, “selling our highway infrastructure to the highest bidder, usually a foreign-owned company.”

Like a mule's first kick, paying $4 for a gallon of gas is an educational opportunity that ought not to be missed. So, too, are the unmistakable signs that the real poverty in this area begins with our thinking. Simply go out U.S. 281 to the areas around Evans and Bulverde Roads to glimpse urban sprawl at its ugliest, a spectacular failure of zoning, planning and land use but, most of all, of common sense.

Forget the obvious threats to the aquifer, to the environment, and even to public safety if the sprawl zones ever had to be evacuated. It is as if the developers had abandoned all thought of San Antonio and were busily building the new and glorious Newark-Upon-the-Guadalupe.

As a wide-eyed schoolboy back east, I learned Texas history from afar, especially that part about lines being drawn in the sand. With the governor, the bureaucrats and the developers now on one side of that line, what a joy, what an honor it is to be here and on the other!

Retired Col. Ken Allard is an executive-in-residence at UTSA.

Hegar: Delisi doesn’t have my support

Link to article here.

COMMENTARY
Hegar: To gain my support, Delisi must prove me wrong
State Sen. Glenn Hegar, R-Katy, TEXAS SENATE
Tuesday, May 06, 2008

On Wednesday, Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced he had appointed Deirdre Delisi, his former chief of staff, chairwoman of the Texas Transportation Commission, which oversees the Texas Department of Transportation. As of today, I will not vote to confirm her appointment in the next legislative session.

Ask almost any Texan, especially those who have the need to travel frequently on Interstate 35, about our Texas transportation system and they will tell you that many of our roads have extreme congestion, while other construction projects have experienced significant cost overruns. Last year, TxDOT notified the public that it had experienced a billion-dollar accounting error, spent millions of dollars in an effort to persuade Texans that we need to pursue the proposed Tran-Texas Corridor even though the legislature had just passed a two-year moratorium on public-private agreements. The next legislative session will be a critical time as we work to ensure that TxDOT can regain the trust of Texans and to overcome the low opinion of what was once the most respected highway department in the nation.


In the Legislature, relations with TxDOT are also at an all-time low. Lawmakers' questions and concerns about the Trans-Texas Corridor, the agency's policies, funding schemes, budget and construction priorities have often been met with contempt and disdain by TxDOT officials. The result is that many legislators, including me, have lost confidence that TxDOT and its policies are working in the best interests of Texas taxpayers.

That is why I had high hopes that the governor would use the vacancy created by the untimely passing of former Transportation Chairman Ric Williamson as an opportunity to appoint someone who would work to change the status quo, reach out to lawmakers and work with the Legislature to address the concerns of the citizens we represent.

I view Delisi's appointment as a squandered opportunity. Rather than choose someone to head the commission who will reach out and work cooperatively with legislators, the governor instead has chosen a political "yes woman" with little or no practical experience involving transportation issues other than carrying out Perry's myopic vision that relies solely on building more toll roads and selling our highway infrastructure to the highest bidder, usually a foreign-owned company.

I serve as the vice chairman of the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission. In 1977, the Legislature created the commission to identify and eliminate waste, duplication and inefficiency in government agencies. The 12-member commission is a legislative body that reviews the policies and programs of more than 150 government agencies every 12 years. The commission questions the need for each agency, looks for potential duplication of other public services or programs and considers changes to improve each agency's operations and activities. Currently, the Texas Department of Transportation is undergoing its 12-year Sunset review.

I also serve as a member of the Senate Nominations Committee, the panel that will have to vote to confirm Delisi's appointment when the legislature reconvenes in January 2009. One might expect that the governor and Delisi would have contacted all members of these key committees to discuss their plans for TxDOT and to ask for our vote in the upcoming nomination process. Unfortunately, like most of my colleagues, I learned about the appointment from the news media.

The governor can certainly appoint anyone whom he sees fit, but as a state senator who takes his constitutional "advise and consent" responsibilities seriously, I would have hoped Perry would have sought out the advice of legislators before asking for our consent at this critical juncture in Texas history.

TxDOT's vision statement says that the agency will work to:

"Promote a higher quality of life through partnerships with the citizens of Texas and all branches of government by being receptive, responsible and cooperative."

Perry's and Delisi's recent actions with regard to this appointment are not in keeping with that statement but instead reflect a vision of non-cooperation and non-responsiveness to lawmakers and the constituents they serve.

I certainly hope that Delisi will prove me wrong. Likewise, I hope that between now and her Senate confirmation hearing next January she will attempt to change my perception that she will not be an agent of the status quo at TxDOT. If so, she may still have an opportunity to earn my confidence and my vote, and the taxpayers of our state and those who use and depend on our vast transportation system will be well served.

Hegar represents District 18.

Lone Star Report: Time to reform TxDOT and the revolving door at the Governor’s office

As usual, Will Lutz of the Lone Star Report speaks for the interests of taxpayers with clarity and conviction. His assessment is exactly right. The Legislature can take the power over TxDOT from the Governor and slap him with new ethics laws on his revolving door Cintra-fest. We need courageous, genuine leadership in the Legislature. It's obvious that it won't just emerge, we must demand it!

Will new commissioners improve TxDOT?
by William Lutz
Lone Star Report
5/5/08

Gov. Rick Perry appointed two new members of the Texas Transportation Commission April 30, his former chief of staff, Deirdre Delisi of Austin and William Meadows of Fort Worth, a member of the North Texas Tollway Authority Board.

The appointment of a former Perry staffer to a key government post is consistent with Perry's appointment pattern, which isn't always well-received at the Capitol.

Some Capitol hands view Delisi's appointment as a sign the Legislature can expect more of the same from the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). Sen. John Carona (R-Dallas), chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Homeland Security, even tried to discourage Perry appointing her.


Both appointments are subject to Senate confirmation, but in the past, some GOP senators - despite talking a good, independent game early in the session - don't seem to have much stomach for a fight with the Governor in mid-May of session years. Therefore, Delisi's confirmation is likely.

Still, the agency has an opportunity here. Its reputation with legislators and grass-roots conservatives has nowhere to go but up. And it will need some credibility because its authority to sign comprehensive development agreements expires in 2009.

(A comprehensive development agreement is a contract whereby the state rents right-of-way to a private company and gives it the exclusive right to build and operate a toll road.) Here are some areas the new commissioners need to address, if the commission wishes to improve its reputation.

Current transportation policy was sold to lawmakers under false pretenses. That is, the omnibus transportation bill of 2003 was promoted to lawmakers as "local control" and "more tools in the toolbox." Lawmakers thought they passed a bill that let local leaders use new financing tools if they wanted to for building local highways faster.

But that's a far cry from what was delivered. No one told lawmakers in 2003 or 2005 that the Texas Department of Transportation was going to try to shake down the Harris County Toll Road Authority for cash when it wanted to build new toll roads. Nor did anyone tell them the transportation commission would favor private contractors over local non-profit toll authorities for the right to build and maintain roads. Nor did anyone mention that the primary driver behind building toll roads was the desire to raise tolls artificially high to generate cash that could be siphoned off to other roads that can't be built with tolls. The bills passed in 2007 were an attempt by the Legislature to fix all of these problems.

Had the agency let local leaders help decide how much revenue to extract from local motorists, the issue wouldn't get as much blow-back at the Capitol.

The public doesn't understand the state's transportation dilemma and doesn't trust TxDOT. Lawmakers and others have pointed this fact out repeatedly to the agency. Yet its response was to run a political PR campaign promoting privatized toll roads.

There's a difference between being transparent and building trust and using government resources for political purposes. Lawmakers wanted the former. TxDOT provided the latter.

The clarity and transparency of the agency's explanations of the state's financial situation could use improvement. There is also a need for the agency to explain and justify the fact that construction costs have risen dramatically faster than inflation.

The agency and its supporters have shown flagrant disregard for the public's right-to-know. If these comprehensive development agreements are really so great - as Perry claims - then why is the agency afraid to let the public see them before they are a done deal and the state is stuck with them for 50 years?

A provision was quietly slipped into a transportation bill in 2005 that exempts any part of any proposal for a comprehensive development agreement from public disclosure - even under criminal subpoena. This blanket secrecy provision, found in section 223.204 of the Transportation Code, includes draft contracts between the agency and private vendors (like Cintra). This provision became a campaign issue in 2006, when Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and the Houston Chronicle demanded the release of the draft agreement between Cintra and the Texas Department of Transportation to develop the Trans-Texas Corridor 35 project.

The public explanation usually given when this provision is published is that a draft contract between the state and a private company is proprietary and contains trade secrets. The problem with that argument is that state law has always provided an exception to public disclosure for real trade secrets - provided that the Attorney General and the courts agree that the material is actually proprietary.

In short , it is fair to question whether the rationale for the blanket exemption from public disclosure is driven by politics. If the public can't see contracts that bind the state for 50 years until after they have been approved and are then a done deal, then opposition is less likely to materialize. There will be less debate over the toll rates and non-compete clauses, for example.

Thanks to Sen. Jane Nelson (R-Lewisville), in 2007, the Legislature passed a "truth in tolling" provision that requires the agency to publish toll rates and other key information before finalizing a toll contract.

But shouldn't the public have the right to see the whole contract in advance of its approval? Will the new commissioners support additional public disclosure of toll road contracts or will they defend secret, special-interest government at its absolute worst?

The agency has not shown the Legislature the respect it deserves. The current executive director of TxDOT has made some improvements in this area. But in 2005, 2006, and early 2007 the agency and the commission showed an appalling lack of respect to lawmakers. Commissioners would seldom attend legislative hearings and regularly picked petty fights with key legislative players.

Carona - the chairman of the Senate committee overseeing TxDOT - had to go to the House and create a big public showdown in 2007 just to get a meeting with the then-chairman of the Texas Transportation Commission. Simply respecting the process - as TxDOT has begun to do in recent months - will go a long way toward building bridges with lawmakers.

The agency is perceived as having a "my way or the highway" approach. It seems that every action the agency takes is designed to build support for privately-run toll roads.

If the commission came up with and supported a more balanced approach, it might get a more receptive audience for its ideas. Not every road has to be a toll road built and financed by Cintra.

A little common sense will help, sometimes. TxDOT seems to have a way of dumping gasoline on the fire. A good example was right after the 2007 legislative session (when the Legislature banned cities from issuing speeding tickets with automated cameras) when TxDOT put up automated cameras in a rural part of Interstate 10 to issue speed warnings. No wonder rural folk don't trust TxDOT!

TxDOT is still under the Governor's control and its tolling policies have not been repealed, largely due to a lack of legislative will-power.

If the Legislature wanted to stop this stuff, it could - even when Perry plays hard ball. Lawmakers can override vetoes. They can brave special sessions. They could make life unpleasant for the governor by holding hearings into the revolving door between the governor's office and certain transportation contractors (including issuing subpoenas to transportation lobbyists who used to work for Perry). They can propose new ethics and campaign contribution legislation.

The agency is up for Sunset in 2009, and the Legislature could easily have someone besides the Governor appointing its board. Or it could allow Comprehensive Development Agreement authority to expire.

But if the new commissioners take a more cooperative approach to transportation, the Legislature may conclude that none of the above steps are necessary.

In other words, the new commissioners are coming in under a cloud, but they also still have an opportunity to make changes - if they want to.

Rural Texans will NOT yield to Trans Texas Corridor

Link to article in Houston Chronicle here.

Fort Bend County News    
Lloyd Koeppen owns property in Mixville, a community near Sealy. Even if the toll road misses his property, he worries it could worsen runoff to his flood-prone land.


April 27, 2008, 11:32PM
Rural residents feel the push from Trans-Texas Corridor

By RAD SALLEE
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle

Minutes south of Interstate 10 and Sealy, the pastures along FM 1458 are their own silent world in the morning. Mists lift to reveal black cattle, brown and spotted horses, snow-white egrets underfoot in lush green grass.


Then a concrete mixer comes churning down the blacktop.

Just up the road is a small subdivision. More are sure to come as city dwellers, including weekenders and retirees, move out in search of a quieter, simpler life — and relief from city traffic.

Although the gradual influx may bring greater changes in the long run, what disturbs residents most is the planned Interstate 69/Trans-Texas Corridor, or I-69/TTC for short.

If it is built, the corridor likely will start out as a four-lane divided tollway. Eventually, the Texas Department of Transportation could expand it to 1,200 feet in places, with toll lanes for cars and trucks; tracks for freight and passenger trains; and space for pipelines, power lines and communications.

The exact route has yet to be determined. TxDOT has recommended the route come from a study corridor, ranging from a quarter-mile to four miles wide, between Texarkana and Mexico. Most of the route will stay close to U.S. 59, the agency says, but to speed traffic around Houston, it veers through rural land west of the city.

It is from there — the ranches and small towns of Walker, Grimes, Waller, Fort Bend and Austin counties — that some of the most unyielding opposition has come.

January through March, residents up and down the study area jammed town hall meetings and public hearings to speak against the project.

Among them were Dennis and Edith Mlcak, whose ranch is on FM 1458 near Frydek, a crossroads community founded by Czech immigrants near the turn of the century.

She grew up in Frydek and he in nearby Mixville, but the Mlcaks are part of the urban migration too. They spent 30 years in Houston before coming home.

Although TxDOT has heard a nearly unanimous negative verdict from residents of the area, Dennis Mlcak is not sure how much that matters.

"They keep pushing this thing, and it keeps marching in a forward direction, so we can't really wait and see if it will die of its own accord," he said.

The Mlcaks' friends, Dane and Maxine Rudloff, whose property lies along I-10 near Sealy, have been through this before. When I-10 was built in the 1960s, the family had to sell 13½ acres for right of way. The road cut off 50 acres from what was left.

"We could see it, but eventually we sold it," Dane Rudloff said. "My mother-in-law went to her grave fuming about that."

At least the interstate and its frontage roads were useful to local residents, he said.

The tolled I-69/TTC, he said, would be a barrier for school buses, as well as the San Felipe-Frydek Volunteer Fire Department, which serves both communities. Although Frydek residents now get water from wells, Dane Rudloff said the corridor could prevent lines from being extended there from Sealy someday.

It also would weaken social ties, Dennis Mlcak said. Although both families live outside the study area, a little cluster of buildings that includes two gathering places — St. Mary's Catholic Church and Emil Ermis' store — is well inside its boundaries.

"The bottom line is that no matter where it goes, it's going to have the same effect on the communities," said Dennis Mlcak, "and once that's severed, it's gone forever."

 

Familiar arguments

At the town hall meetings, residents again and again raised the same arguments: The corridor would divide communities and properties while taking valuable land out of production and off the local tax rolls.
Some said the corridor's main purpose is to carry Chinese imported goods from Mexico to northern states and Canada, with little or no benefit to Texans.

Contraband and smuggling will increase, they said, and the toll profits will go to foreigners who operate the road, while Texans would be barred from building competing routes.

Again and again, TxDOT made the same replies: Huge growth in the state's economy and population are inevitable over the next 30 years. Current roads cannot meet even today's needs, and there barely is enough tax revenue to maintain them, let alone build more.

The corridor, officials said, will reduce urban congestion and the cost of moving goods and people. And if a foreign company builds and operates it for a profit, that just means taxpayers will not foot the bill. The state of Texas will own it, and if the operator goes broke, the state will take it back.

 

Living in limbo

The uncertainty of the final route — the location as well as the size — leaves Lloyd and Judith Koeppen, who live deep inside the study area, in limbo.
Lloyd Koeppen, who has spent his life in Mixville, has snapshots of his house surrounded by floodwater from Allen Creek. Even if the toll road misses his property, he worries it could worsen runoff.

Should he stay or sell, he asks.

TxDOT says the final route will follow existing roads and property lines when feasible. In the 50 miles or so between I-10 and Texas 105 near Navasota, a likely candidate for the route is FM 362.

The two-lane road meanders, but more than half of it is in the recommended study corridor.

Taking it north from I-10, the views get longer and driveways farther apart. As the road crosses U.S. 290 and passes between Waller and Prairie View, development picks up again.

A small subdivision with large lots has sprouted in the prairie south of where FM 362 crosses FM 1488. One of the lots belongs to Marvin Ottmer.

Ottmer, 57, said he plans to retire there in three years. His lot is a half-mile from FM 362, but he did not hear about the corridor plan until after he closed on the property.

"They say they don't know whether they will need it or not and won't know for two or three years," he said. "You don't know whether to keep it, and you can't really sell it to anybody. Who wants to live next to a highway?"

Rick Hunley, who owns Country Living Mortgage not far from Ottmer's land, hears that often. "I don't really know the answer," he said. "Build it, and if they have to take it from you, buy another one, I suppose."

Hunley doubts the corridor will come to FM 362. He predicts the area will grow too fast for TxDOT to obtain right of way at acceptable costs and that the route will be farther west.

Already, he said, there is a 300-home subdivision and a Buddhist temple complex on Mellman Road. Not far from his office are a sprawling fish hatchery and several farms that breed or train horses.

"Soon you won't be able to buy land here," Hunley said. "It's hard to find anything less than $12,000 an acre now."

Longtime residents will try to keep land in the family, he said, but it's hard to resist the market.

 

Loss of seclusion

As FM 362 enters Grimes County, the land becomes hilly and forested.
On the west side is Camp Allen, the Episcopal Church retreat and conference center. Church officials fear the center would lose its prized seclusion if the corridor is built along FM 362.

Beyond are lush fields of bluebonnet and Indian paintbrush, followed by a gentle curve into White Hall.

There is a historical marker at the community center and another at Fairview Cemetery on a low hill across the road. The junction at FM 2988, on another hill, includes Whitehall Grocery and Salem Lutheran Church.

Inside the store were flight attendant Sharon Lea and her husband, Curtis, a Houston firefighter. They live in Cypress but come up on weekends to work on their retirement property.

"We've loved it here since we were little," she said — so much that when their daughter Melissa, 22, died in June, they buried her in Fairview Cemetery.

"A few months after that, we found out about this TTC," Sharon Lea said. "I don't believe a word TxDOT says. They couldn't tell us where it's going to go, but they kept telling us they understood, they understood. I don't think they really understood because if they did, they'd get the hell out of here, and they wouldn't come back."

Senators to Prez: Stop stockpiling oil at a time of crisis

Link to article here.

Sen. Hutchison: “Immediately Halt Deposits in the Strategic Oil Reserve”
Published in Texas Insider: 04-30-08
Letter to the President Signed by 16 Senators, Cites “Busiest Driving Season” of the Year

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), Chairman of the Republican Policy Committee, today urged the administration to immediately halt deposits of domestic crude oil into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).

“The SPR had 554 million barrels when President Bush took office and today it has over 701 million barrels,” Sen. Hutchison said. “We are in an extreme circumstance, now that oil is around $120 a barrel. I support an immediate halt in the deposits of domestic crude into the SPR as we enter the busiest driving season of the year.”

The letter was signed by Senators Jon Kyl (R-AZ), John Barrasso (R-WY), Kit Bond (R-MO), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Cornyn (R-TX), Elizabeth Dole (R-NC), Judd Gregg (R-NH), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Lisa Murkowski (R-AL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), John Sununu (R-NH), and Ted Stevens (R-AK). Sens. Murkowski, Sessions, and Barrasso are members of the Senate Energy Committee.


TEXT OF THE LETTER
April 29, 2008

The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear President Bush:

We write today to request that the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) immediately halt deposits of domestic crude oil into the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). As we enter the busiest driving season of the year, the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude oil hovers around a record $120.

The SPR was established in 1975 to provide a supply of crude oil during times of severe supply disruptions. Today, the SPR contains more than 701 million barrels of oil, exceeding our International Energy Program commitments to maintain at least 90 days of oil stocks in reserve.

High energy prices are having a ripple effect throughout the U.S. economy and exacerbating recessionary pressures. The Energy Information Agency reports that supplies and inventories of crude oil and refined products are above 2007 inventories while our demand for gasoline is down. Yet, the price of crude oil has skyrocketed 100% from last year’s levels which were just above $63 a barrel in April, 2007. Despite these economic realities, the DoE recently solicited contracts to exchange up to 13 million barrels of royalty oil from Federal leases in the Gulf of Mexico for deposits in the SPR.

Some analysts blame geopolitical instability and disruption in production for the rapid price increases; however, these factors alone do not explain the extraordinary increase in oil prices compared to previous years, when these same challenges were present. Temporarily halting deposits to the reserve can provide some relief because the increased supply of oil available for refinement will send the right signal to all markets that the U.S. Government will take measures necessary to address exorbitant crude oil prices that negatively affect the global economy. We believe, in light of the dramatic increase in oil prices, a temporary halt to deposits into the SPR should be considered until the economy stabilizes.

I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to hearing back from you.

Hutchison: Time to remove ethanol from food price hike/rationing equation

Link to article here.

Undoing America's Ethanol Mistake
By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison
Published in Texas Insider: 04-30-08

The Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman once said, "One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results."

When Congress passed legislation to greatly expand America's commitment to biofuels, it intended to create energy independence and protect the environment.

But the results have been quite different. America remains equally dependent on foreign sources of energy, and new evidence suggests that ethanol is causing great harm to the environment.

In recent weeks, the correlation between government biofuel mandates and rapidly rising food prices has become undeniable. At a time when the U.S. economy is facing recession, Congress needs to reform its "food-to-fuel" policies and look at alternatives to strengthen energy security.

On Dec. 19, 2007, President Bush signed into law the Energy Independence and Security Act. This legislation had several positive features, including higher fuel standards for cars and greater investment in renewable energies such as solar power.

However, the bill required a huge spike in the biofuel production requirement, from 7.5 billion gallons in 2012 to 36 billion in 2022.

This was a well-intentioned measure, but it was also impractical. Nearly all our domestic corn and grain supply is needed to meet this mandate, robbing the world of one of its most important sources of food.

We are already seeing the ill effects of this measure. Last year, 25% of America's corn crop was diverted to produce ethanol. In 2008, that number will grow to 30%-35%, and it will soar even higher in the years to come.

Furthermore, the trend of farmers supplanting other grains with corn is decreasing the supply of numerous agricultural products. When the supply of those products goes down, the price inevitably goes up.

Subsequently, the cost of feeding farm and ranch animals increases and the cost is passed to consumers of beef, poultry and pork products.

Since February 2006, the price of corn, wheat and soybeans has increased by more than 240%. Rising food prices are hitting the pockets of lower-income Americans and people who live on fixed incomes.

While the blame for higher costs shouldn't rest exclusively with biofuels — drought and rising oil costs are contributing factors — the expansion of biofuels has been a major source of the problem.

The International Food Policy Research Institute estimates that biofuel production accounts for between one-quarter and one-third of the recent spike in global commodity prices.

For the first time in 30 years, food riots are breaking out in many parts of the globe, including major countries such as Mexico, Pakistan and Indonesia.

The fact that America's energy policies are creating global instability should concern the leaders of both political parties.

Restraining the dangerous effects of artificially inflated demand for ethanol should be an issue that unites both conservatives and progressives.

As a recent Time cover story pointed out, biofuel mandates increase greenhouse gasses and create incentives for global deforestation.

In the Amazon basin, huge swaths of forest are being cleared to meet the growing hunger for biofuels.

In addition, relief organizations are facing gaping shortfalls as the cost of food outpaces their ability to provide aid for the 800 million people who lack food security.

The recent food crisis does not mean we should entirely abandon biofuels.

The best way to lower energy prices, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil, is to accelerate production of all forms of domestic energy.

Expanding biofuels while refusing to take other measures, such as lifting the ban on oil and natural gas production in Alaska and the Outer Continental Shelf, is counterproductive. We should be tapping into a broad portfolio of energy options, including clean coal, nuclear power and wave energy.

The key is increasing energy supply. By taking these measures, we can enable biofuels to be part of the energy solution, instead of contributing to the energy problem.

Congress must take action. I am introducing legislation that will freeze the biofuel mandate at current levels, instead of steadily increasing it through 2022.

This is a common-sense measure that will reduce pressure on global food prices and restore balance to America's energy policy.

As the Senate debates this issue, we must remain focused on the facts.

At one point, expanding biofuels made sense for America's energy security. But the recent surge in food prices has forced us to adapt. The global demand for energy and food is expected to rise about 50% in the next 20 years, and the U.S. is well-positioned to be a leader in both areas.

That will require a careful, finely tuned approach to America's farm products.

By freezing the biofuel mandate at current levels, we will go a long way to achieving that goal.

Senator Hutchison chairs the Senate Republican Policy Committee and is representing Texas in her third full term in the Senate.

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