Council briefed on risks of Trinity Toll Road

Link to article here.

They should have pulled the plug on this toll road long ago. It’s a dangerous boondoggle to benefit well-connected developers, not the average commuter. It barely passed the public vote in the first place. There are better uses for scarce road funds.  

Dallas council briefed on risk of Trinity toll road floods
By ROBERT WILONSKY
Staff Writer
Dallas Morning News
April 14, 2014

A 9-mile toll road proposed inside the Trinity River levees would extend about 535 feet into the floodway for much of its length and run right next to the river in some spots.

Dallas City Council members also learned during a presentation Monday that the road would include a “flood separation wall” that’s not even as high as the existing levees and would necessitate an evacuation plan in the event of a 100-year flood.

Feds seeks to seize 90,000 acres at Texas border

Link to article here.

From the Daily Paul:
Since 1803 when the Louisiana Purchase was completed, there has been a controversy over the boundary between Oklahoma and Texas. The boundary is supposed to be the vegetation line on the south side of the Red River. But the River has moved over time. The problem is the definition of that boundary line - Oklahoma and Texas each use different semantics to define it. And the BLM is finding ways to use the disputed words to give them the ability to seize the land.

According to the BLM, the Red River is always Accretion (gradual accumulation of sediment) to the south, and always Avulsion (rapid formation of a new river channel) to the north. So according to the BLM, the boundary only moves one direction, never in the direction that favors the ranchers. They are looking to re-draw the entire portion of the Red River boundary. That includes 90,000 acres of land along a 116 mile stretch of the river.

Stand-off with Nevada rancher ends for now

Link to article here.

U.S. Officials End Tense Standoff Between Nevada Rancher, Federal Government
By Oliver Darcy
The Blaze
April 12, 2014

A tense standoff between a local Nevada rancher and the federal government concluded Saturday, with U.S. officials citing public safety concerns as they ended a controversial week-long cattle roundup that drew nationwide attention.

“Based on information about conditions on the ground, and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concern about the safety of employees and members of the public,” Neil Kornze, director of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said in a statement.

Gas Tax Hike Touted for Transportation Woes

Link to article here.

Drew Darby is trying to re-write history and say he didn't advocate for gas tax hike to a room full of road builders last week, but he's parsing words. His chief of staff insisted that the WOAI news story below be edited. However, Darby did indeed advocate for a gas tax hike without directly saying, "I'm for a gas tax hike." He used phrases like 'smart' and 'courageous' lawmakers know we need to raise the gas tax. He supported a bill to do just that last session as well as one that would have doubled vehicle registration fees. Darby also mocked those who want an end to gas tax diversions before any gas tax hike is on the table. Read my article on it here or here.

Gas Tax Hike Touted for Transportation Woes
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
March 21, 2014

The Texas Legislature’s point man on transportation funding says Texas motorists need to understand that a higher gas tax would be a more 'open and transparent' way of dealing head on with the state's transportation crisis than the 'congestion tax' that motorists are currently paying every day.

"I think we need to revert to pay as your go," State Re. Drew Darby (R-San Angelo) told the San Antonio Mobility Coalition.  "Nine times members of the Legislature have raised the gasoline tax to pay for our transportation infrastructure, but that hasn't happened since 1991.  Since then, however, we have said we don't want to deal with the open and visible tax, we would rather pay an invisible tax."

Larson: Streetcar "Unethical and Possibly Illegal," Should be Killed

Link to article here.

We say 'Amen' to Larson's thoughts that the $92 million in road funds that were stolen to build the street car downtown where there's no congestion should be reallocated to fix 1604 or 281 without tolls. We've been saying that since the street car first came online...

Larson: Streetcar "Unethical and Possibly Illegal," Should be Killed
By Jim Forsyth
WOAI Radio
March 18, 2014

The heat on VIA, Bexar County and the City of San Antonio is being cranked up to boiling levels as pressure increases to kill the controversial downtown streetcar plan, or at least call an election to see if there is any support at all for the project.

In letters to the county, VIA Chairman Alex Briseno, and the Texas Transportation Commission, influential State Rep. Lyle Larson says he has not seen a 'more divisive issue in this community over the last two decades.'

Trucker files lawsuit for overcharging by Florida toll system

Link to article here.

Lawsuit alleges overcharging by Florida SunPass
By David Tanner
Land Line Magazine
March 20, 2014

A Florida car hauler has filed a lawsuit against the Florida Department of Transportation’s toll collection agency, SunPass.



John Northrup, doing business as Angie’s Transportation out of Plant City, Fla., seeks to “recover excessive tolls charged under FDOT’s SunPass system,” according to the lawsuit filed Feb. 21 in the Circuit Court of the Second Judicial Circuit for Leon County, Fla.



In addition to monetary damages, Northrup seeks declaratory and injunctive relief for breach of contract by the named defendants – the Florida Department of Transportation and FDOT Secretary Ananth Prasad in his official capacity.

New York tracks motorists using toll tags - even on non-toll roads

Link to article here.

New York uses toll tags to track motorists
By Kit Daniels
InfoWars.com
March 24, 2014

New York traffic agencies are tracking motorists across the state by connecting to their toll tags mounted to their windshields, even when the drivers are no where near a toll booth.

Both the New York City Department of Transportation and Transcom, a traffic management agency, admitted that for nearly 20 years they have been using antennas to connect to E-ZPass toll tags in vehicles driving across more than 3,000 miles of public, non-toll roads, not just in New York but neighboring states as well.

Tax hike? Lawmaker tells road lobby gas tax hike coming

Link to article here.

Tax hike? Lawmaker tells road lobby gas tax hike coming
By Terri Hall
Examiner.com
March 21, 2014

Texas State Rep. Drew Darby told a friendly crowd of road builders that he’ll continue to push for a gas tax hike to help shore-up the State’s road funding shortfalls at yesterday’s San Antonio Mobility Coalition (SAMCo) luncheon. Darby supported a bill to capture half of the vehicle sales tax receipts, raise the gas tax 10 cents a gallon, and double vehicle registration fees during the legislative session last year. So his support of gas tax hikes are well known. But what makes his comments to SAMCo so newsworthy is his open mockery of those who have a problem with ending the raid of gas taxes for non-road purposes.

The biggest diversion of gas tax goes to public education by constitutional amendment (twenty-five percent). The next goes to the Department of Public Safety (DPS) which gets roughly five percent. The constitution does say the gas tax can go to policing state highways, but that’s a small amount of the DPS budget. The Texas legislature has raided additional sums to the tune of billions over the last several decades for anything from computers in the Comptroller’s office to enhancing employee benefits in the Attorney General’s office. Taxpayers want accountability for those funds and restitution before any tax hikes are contemplated.

Travis County decides to pony up $15 million for SH 45

Link to story here.

Every time taxpayer money goes into building toll roads it’s a DOUBLE TAX scam.

Travis County decides to pony up $15 million for SH 45
By Kate Weidaw
KVUE.com
Wednesday, March 19, 2014

MANCHACA, Texas (KXAN) –  Travis County Commissioners voted Tuesday to approve spending roughly $15 million on the proposed road that would connect FM 1626 to MoPac at State Highway 45 and give drivers another option to avoid Interstate 35 traffic off Brodie Lane.

The commissioners approved the plan with a 4-1 vote.

This would be a joint venture between Travis County, the Central Texas Regional Mobility Authority, and Hays County — with Hays County pitching $5 million for the project. Capital Area Metro Planning Organization and TxDOT will fund $32 million and CTRMA will cover the rest of the balance at $48 million.

Commissioner Ron Davis was the lone nay vote.

Environmentalists worry the road could endanger wildlife along the route.  The Save Our Springs Alliance asked the court to postpone voting until environmental studies are complete.

The group filed a complaint Monday, March 17 against Commissioner Gerald Daugherty for violating the Texas Public Information Act.  They claim Daugherty deleted emails and text messages about the road project that should be made available to the public.

Critics of the project say the proposed road will only make MoPac more congested than it already is, especially during rush hour.

Supporters believe it will make a significant impact for the local neighborhoods that are seeing an increase in traffic.
__________________________________________________

View story here.

County commissioner accused of destroying records
KVUE.com
March 18, 2014

TRAVIS COUNTY -- Travis County Commissioner Gerald Daugherty is being accused of withholding and destroying public records.

The Save Our Springs Alliance filed a criminal complaint with the county attorney on Monday, claiming Daugherty failed to respond to public information requests.

The complaint also claims the commissioner deleted texts and emails relating to county business, held committee meetings without public notice and did not take minutes of those meetings, in violation of the Texas Public Information Act. The group says it does not know what those messages may contain.

At a commissioner's court meeting on Tuesday, Daugherty said he is confident he followed the rules.

"I know what I've done and what I haven't done," Daugherty said. "There's again another red herring if they think that there is something criminal about it. Let's see if a judge finds that."

The Save Our Springs Alliance is trying to stop a proposed extension of State Highway 45 from MoPac Expressway to FM 1626 in Southwest Austin.

Daugherty says it's been 17 years since voters approved the highway extension project and it's time to move forward.

SOS members fear it will cause irreparable harm to the Edwards Aquifer.


Federal study backs single Dallas Trinity toll road route

Link to article here.

Federal study backs single Dallas Trinity toll road route — or none at all
By ROBERT WILONSKY
Dallas Morning News
Published: 18 March 2014

Dallas will either get a toll road inside the Trinity River levees or there won’t be one at all.

That’s according to the Federal Highway Administration’s recently completed final environmental impact statement on the project. The study appears to give Dallas City Hall what it has long wanted: a somewhat clearer path toward building a nearly 9-mile toll road along the east levee of the Trinity River.

But the road ahead is still a bumpy one, and any construction would be years away. The city lacks the more than $1.5 billion needed to build the road. Other federal clearance is still required.

And the highway administration wants to evaluate the toll road’s impact on wetlands and flood plains between the levees. Those effects were rated unacceptable by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2009.

Tuesday’s report concludes a toll road just inside the east levee would be the “least environmentally damaging alternative” of all options presented — except for not building the road at all.

“Then let’s not build it,” said council member Philip Kingston, one of a handful of council members opposed to the toll road.

The FHWA won’t issue a final decision about the project until after an April 24 public hearing to gather input about the report. The federal agency is holding the hearing in conjunction with the Texas Department of Transportation and the North Texas Tollway Authority.

Several key hurdles to building the toll road, like securing funding, remain. The project also will require two permits from the corps. One allows an agency to modify an existing corps project — in this case, a flood plain. The other regulates changes to bodies of water overseen by the U.S. government and is required by the Clean Water Act.

The corps also is finalizing its own environmental impact study, which is expected to be given to council members April 14. Jim Frisinger, a spokesman for the corps’ Fort Worth District, said its contents will not be made available until shortly before that.

“They’re a little ahead of us, the parkway people,” Frisinger said.

Despite remaining steps, FHWA spokesman Doug Hecox said his agency’s final environmental impact statement is a key part of the process.

“The FEIS is a milestone,” he said.

Hecox said barring any surprises at next month’s hearing, his agency will support the option to build just inside the east levee. Assistant City Manager Jill Jordan, who oversees the Trinity River Corridor Project, was delighted Tuesday.

Jordan said the least environmentally disruptive route has always been Dallas’ preference. That option is labeled 3C in the report.

“We were hopeful the record of decision would point in the direction of 3C, and the fact they’re getting to that conclusion eventually supports the city’s position and desired outcome,” she said.

Still, there are caveats that came with the FHWA’s conclusion. The massive document said that general policy “would not favor such an alternative” at all as going inside the levees.

The report says it’s recommending the route “for further evaluation” based solely on “a unique set of factors that warrant favoring” such an alternative.

The federal government says in the study that it has allowed the so-called 3C plan to survive this long because the toll road has been designed to avoid substantial impacts of the Trinity River flood plain to perform its “fundamental mission of safely conveying floodwaters from extreme storm events” past downtown Dallas.

The study also notes the toll road has been a prominent aspect of Dallas city planning for more than 40 years.

Kingston criticized the report for being influenced by Dallas politics and planning.

“It doesn’t seem responsible to allow Dallas’ zeal to build this road to affect an outcome of an environmental impact statement,” he said.

The NTTA has first shot at building the toll road. But it will first conduct its own revenue study to determine, among other things, how many people would use it and whether it makes financial sense to fund it.

Jordan said once all federal clearances are reached, a funding plan will be put in place. Then the design phase can begin.

“Construction could be several years off,” she said.

AT A GLANCE: The preferred route
Description: Preferred by the city, this option would put the toll road to the inside the east levee. It would run 8.67 miles, with about 6.2 miles in the floodway.
Total cost: at least $1.46 billion (2013 dollars)
Environmental mitigation cost: $22.9 million
Operating and maintenance costs: $597.8 million (2012 dollars)
Buildings destroyed: 30 (27 commercial)

Pro: It’s cheaper, faster and less disruptive to business. It also would leave Riverfront Boulevard open to commercial development.

Con: It puts a six-lane toll road right in the middle of the floodway, something that has never been done. Critics say it mars the parklike atmosphere and needlessly adds strain to the aging levees that protect Dallas from floods. Federal law prohibits a project from elevating flood levels, and this alternative would do so slightly. The corps could issue a waiver to permit the higher water if it felt the associated risks were small enough.

Oklahoma has better toll roads than Texas

Link to Letter here.

Oklahoma has a better toll road system than Texas
By Letters to the Editor
Dallas Morning News
March 20, 2014

Recently I traveled to Oklahoma, and I paid my toll at a manned toll both in Chandler. It also had a Prairie Speed Pass option. Manned booths coupled with electronic booths are necessary everywhere. The REAL people can help drivers who are lost or help find gas stations, and one doesn’t have to pay the enormous processing fees when the toll bill comes in the mail.

It also provides local jobs which support the local economy.

I have been on toll roads in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. Unfortunately my home state of Texas is the only with all automated tolls where the poor and visitors end up paying the most fees. We have eliminated manned booths and jobs that help the local economy, and we are not available to help visitors and those who are lost to help with directions and services.

Please bring back at least one manned booth on the automated massive and growing toll road system in Texas.

— Gabrielle Gordon, Unincorporated Tarrant County


Concerns about Indiana airport P3

Link to article here.

Bad privatization deals don't just stop with road deals, there's plenty of concern on other deals, too, like this airport P3 in Indiana.

Forum examines pitfalls of privatization
Story Posted:03/22/2014
The Gary Crusader

The pitfalls of privatization were discussed at a forum sponsored by the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, Tuesday, March 18 at Trinity United Church of Christ.



A panel consisting of Don Cohen, Executive Director of In The Public Interest; Hobart Pastor Charles Strietelmeir; Dr. Ruth Needleman; Rev. Dwight Gardner; Atty. Renee Hatcher and Rev. John Jackson focused on how privatization benefits corporations at the expense of the public.

The speakers discussed the fight for community benefits agreement for jobs training on Regional Development projects, along with an analysis of the Public-private partnership (P3) Gary-Chicago International Airport agreement.

“Privatization means that private investors will gain and the public will lose. We cannot advance socially or economically if all the decision-making is in the hands of people whose motivation is profit,” said Federation president the Rev. Dwight Gardner.



According to Cohen, who heads a Washington, D.C.-based resource center on privatization, committed to educating citizens, public officials and advocacy groups said, “privatization of public services and assets has been touted as being better, cheaper and faster. The reality is much different. When done poorly, which happens too often, government contracting can be a bad deal.”



The federation has been engaged in a two-year campaign to get the RDA to sign on to it Community Benefits Agreement on all RDA funded projects. The main focus of the Federation’s campaign has been to get local hiring on the Gary-Chicago International Airport runway expansion project.



The City of Gary has entered into a public-private partnership at the airport. Needleman, a former IUN professor said that the according to the contract between the city and the contractors a private corporation will run the airport for 40 years.

The airport contract has a nasty wrinkle when it comes to privatization. It’s called a P3, which means a public-private partnership.

The corporation gets to run the airport as its own, until either it fails, pulls out, or drops the bag,” said Needleman.

“If it were a regular privatization, the company would be stuck with that bag of debt. But in a 3P the city inherits and owns what’s left, including its debt,’ stated Needleman.



Among the other concerns with the contract is a clause regarding payment of consultant fees. Needleman said the fees are supposed be paid by the private company.

She said there are three demands that the interfaith should make. Set aside a percentage of the jobs for residents of the poorest communities. Provide for authentic community participation and insert a clause charging the $2 million consultant to the private company.

Editorial: Private toll roads a good fortune only for the boodlers

Link to article here.

The Washington Times Editorial Board is exactly right. P3s do not benefit the traveling public -- only the private cronies who walk away with the booty.

EDITORIAL: Innovative cronies
‘Private’ toll roads lead to good fortune only for the boodlers
Friday, March 21, 2014

Budget season is here, and an endless stream of lobbyists are making their annual pilgrimage to Capitol Hill to beg for alms. It’s something the transportation industry does well, considering that the promise of eliminating potholes pleases everybody but mechanics and tire salesmen. Some of the lobbyists, even some conservatives with more appetite than conviction, are pushing toll roads and mileage-tax schemes in the guise of reducing traffic congestion. It’s a trap.

Toll roads are all the rage with those who expect to get rich with deals called “innovative” public-private partnerships. The idea of tossing a coin into a basket for the privilege of traveling on a road is a stale and frayed idea that only seems fresh.

Editorial: Toll roads aren't right for Wisconsin (Texas either)

Link to article here.

For many of the same reasons, tolls aren't good for Texas, either.

Journal Times editorial: Toll roads aren't the answer for Wisconsin
March 04, 2014 12:15 am  •  Journal Times Editorial Board

Like potholes in the spring, the perennial proposal to raise revenue for state road construction by putting tollbooths on Wisconsin’s Interstate has again resurfaced.

Last week, the toll road arguments got an unlikely bipartisan push from state Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha, and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester.

At a Racine County legislative breakfast, Barca worried aloud about the decline in state gas tax revenue as vehicles become more energy-efficient. “This is a huge problem and I think counties and everyone around the state needs to carefully analyze this,” Barca said.

And Vos chimed in that without another source of revenue to support road construction the fuel tax could double. “As a Republican I don’t stand up saying ‘it’s great we’re going to raise fees,’” Vos said. “But I do believe people should pay for what they use.”

The lure of toll roads for Wisconsin is easy to understand — legislators and others think it would fund our highways using OPM — other people’s money. Why, just look at all those Illinois cars that glide up the Interstate on their way to Wisconsin’s northwoods every year. And they’re already used to toll roads so they won’t even notice.

Except they might. And they might decide to forego that trip to Eagle River if the trip takes longer because of toll stops. Or they might decide to skip off the Interstate and use secondary roads to avoid the tollbooths, a diversion that would put more traffic on those roads and boost congestion and repair costs for highways less able to handle the load. You can be sure that southeastern Wisconsin residents would use that option of toll avoidance as well.

However Vos and Barca would like to spin it, unintended consequences like secondary highway congestion, loss of tourism dollars and increased repair costs on other roads would be some of the results.

And no matter how you slice it, it would be another tax — and an inefficient one to boot. In a recent commentary, Hayes Framme of the Alliance for Toll-Free Interstates, cited a State of Washington study that noted the cost of operating and maintaining toll facilities can consume as much as 20 percent of the money generated. That compares to about 1 percent for the cost of administering a gas tax.

Instead of a two-tax system, Wisconsin would be better off taking the current road and using the gas tax as the primary source for highway funding. Critics will say the state’s gas taxes are already among the highest in the country — and it’s true that Wisconsin ranks 14th among all states. But at 51.3 cents per gallon for federal and state gas taxes, Wisconsin is less than 2 cents per gallon more than the national average of 49.5 cents.

We don’t need a new and inefficient tax like toll roads in southeastern Wisconsin.

P3 bridge too good to be true?

Link to article here.

So-called 'availability payments' are code for off-budget debt that taxpayers will be obligated to repay with interest plus profit to private companies involved in P3s. It's never a good deal for taxpayers stuck holding the bag.

Bridge plan too good to be true?
Lancaster Online
Sunday, February 16, 2014

It sounds too good to be true.

Some 500 crumbling bridges in Pennsylvania, including 33 in Lancaster County, are in line for repairs that might start by 2015 and be finished by 2020.

And it won't cost state government anything up front.

As a Sunday News story last week reported, the Rapid Bridge Replacement program aims to take advantage of a 2012 law authorizing so-called P3 — for public-private partnership — initiatives. Instead of the government financing transportation projects and hiring contractors to do the work, the government grants a concession to a private firm that designs, builds and sometimes operates the project. In return, the private partner gets a quid pro quo from the government, whether that involves collecting tolls from motorists or payments from the state.

What a deal! The state doesn't have to borrow money — the private sector does that. The state doesn't have to design or build the roads or bridges — the private sector does that. The state might not even have to maintain the roads or bridges — the private sector does that.

So what does the private sector get out of the deal?

That's why we can't help but remember the adage: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Pennsylvania is among 30 states with P3 laws. The benefits of some projects are obvious -— especially major ones like the Capital Beltway HOT Lane. Virginia's highway department estimated that widening Interstate 495 near Washington, D.C., would cost $2.68 billion to $3.25 billion. Not to mention the fact that 300 homes and 32 businesses were in the path of the expansion.

Enter a private partner, which eventually brought in the project at $2.1 billion and developed an innovative road design that minimized the disruption to neighboring property owners.

The private contractor is getting toll revenue from I-495. That's a straightforward quid pro quo.

How are the private firms potentially interested in a bundle of 500 deficient bridges in Pennsylvania going to get a return on investment?

The private partners must be expecting to make money. Otherwise they wouldn't take the risk.

Pennsylvania's Rapid Bridge Replacement initiative doesn't envision tolls on the rebuilt spans, but it offers "availability payments" to private contractors. The U.S. Transportation Department defines that arrangement as annual payments to the private partner, based on how well the project performs. (Think pothole repairs, for instance.)

That means the state would have to cough up cash every year to its private partner.

In traditional financing, governments borrow money through long-term bond issues to pay for roads and bridges. Does the state intend to issue bonds to pay P3 partners over 25 to 35 years — the anticipated length of the Rapid Bridge Replacement concession? If not, where is cash-strapped Harrisburg planning to come up with the money?

P3 partnerships aren't fool-proof. Policy Alternatives, a progressive think tank in Canada, is harshly critical of P3 projects in that nation, pointing out that in several cases private partners have required bailouts to stay financially solvent and that in other cases the projects wound up costing more under the P3 model than they would have with typical public-sector financing.

We'd like a clear explanation to taxpayers of the private sector's revenue stream, and the potential long-term costs to the public sector, before the state enters into a P3 contract.

Yes, the private sector can do some public-benefit jobs more efficiently and effectively than the government itself can. P3 partnerships are intriguing from that perspective.

But we also know that the private sector isn't going to give the public sector a free lunch — or a free bridge. So if it sounds too good to be true … maybe it is.

Hydrogen Fuel Set to Take Off, But Safety Concerns Remain

Link to article here.

Hydrogen Fuel Set to Take Off, But Safety Concerns Remain
by Naveena Sadasivam

ProPublica
Feb. 18, 2014

It was just before 3 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon and traffic was moving smoothly on the Pomona Freeway, about 20 miles outside downtown Los Angeles. Suddenly, a truck carrying compressed hydrogen caught fire, and by the time the local fire department had arrived on the scene, two of the hydrogen tanks had begun venting gas, and flames had engulfed the truck’s cab.

It took almost seven hours for firefighters, working with a mix of chemicals and water, to end the threat.

“It had the full spectrum of colors,” Captain Will Pryor of the Los Angeles County Fire Department recalled of the fire on Nov. 14, 2013. “It’s like a log in a fire. You’d have blue parts of it. Orange parts of it.

“There is a school nearby, there are multiple residences nearby, apartment buildings, office buildings,” Pryor said. “They were all in a half-mile blast radius, what was reported would be the blast radius of hydrogen.”

In the end, there were no casualties, and the worst-case scenario was avoided. But as California expands its use of hydrogen-fueled cars and builds out its infrastructure for servicing those cars, more hydrogen is going to be trucked around.

Later this year, 1,000 of Hyundai’s hydrogen-fueled cars will go on sale in California, and Toyota has announced plans for a commercial model to go on sale in 2015. Ford, Daimler, Nissan, General Motors and Honda have also announced plans for partnerships on hydrogen fuel cell technologies. The California Air Resources Board has projected that there will be over 50,000 electric and hydrogen cars in California by 2018.

California Gov. Jerry Brown last year agreed to devote $20 million every year over the next decade to build 100 additional hydrogen fueling stations. The state currently has 23 active stations.

Hydrogen as a fuel source is an attractive proposition mainly because it doesn’t emit toxic, heat-trapping pollutants the way gasoline does. An analysis conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy shows that for a mid-size SUV, the total greenhouse gas emissions from using hydrogen as a fuel is at worst half that for gasoline.

However, hydrogen poses several other risks that gasoline does not. It is highly flammable, and can ignite more easily than other fuels. Hydrogen is also colorless and odorless, making it difficult to readily detect leaks.

Environmental and regulatory experts have long worried about the threat posed by the vast array of dangerous materials daily being moved across the country, from nuclear waste to pesticides and compressed gases.

“As far as the aggregate risk that is presented to the American public, I don’t think it’s going to change significantly,” said Carl Southwell, a risk analyst who studies infrastructure and chemical risks. “But there will be slightly more risk to first responders and people near the hydrogen fire.”
A ProPublica review of voluntarily submitted data collected by the Department of Energy does show there have been some problems with hydrogen infrastructure nationally.

There have been 37 recorded “events” in recent years involving hydrogen trucks or fueling stations. Of the 22 events recorded at fueling stations, hydrogen was released in a dozen of them, and twice the releases resulted in fires. Fires occurred in five of the 15 recorded events involving hydrogen trucks.

At the moment, the transport of hydrogen is monitored by both state and federal agencies. The federal agency, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), says it requires various types of documentation and labeling for shipments of hydrogen and training for employees involved in its transport.

However, there have been recent reports —one by an inspector general with the federal Department of Transportation — asserting that the agency has been chronically understaffed and underfunded. A senior agency official recently conceded as much, saying funding from Congress had dried up and that the regulatory process he oversees was “kind of dying.”

Gordon Delcambre Jr., a PHMSA spokesman, told ProPublica that the agency ensures compliance of hazardous materials shippers and carriers by conducting unannounced inspections. But he acknowledged that federal regulations do not actually require such inspections or mandate how often they should occur.

ProPublica determined that the agency’s western office, which is responsible for 12 states, has just seven inspectors.

Warnings about the transport and use of dangerous materials of all kinds have been sounded for years. In 2007, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which is in charge of enforcing regulations for cargo trucks and interstate buses, called for changes in its operations to meet the rise in vehicles that used hydrogen.

“The [current] regulations do not consider safety systems and equipment required for commercial vehicles using hydrogen as an alternative fuel,” the authors of the report said. But to date, the FMCSA has not made changes to include separate inspection procedures and regulations for hydrogen-powered vehicles.

Quon Kwan, who helped compile the report at the FMCSA, said he was hopeful that more action would be taken in spite of the fact that the number of hydrogen-powered vehicles on the roads today are a “drop in the bucket” when set against the millions of diesel-powered trucks the agency is responsible for regulating.

Chief Jan Dunbar at the California Office of Emergency Services downplayed the challenge any increase in hydrogen transport and use might present to first responders.

“There’s nothing special about hydrogen that sets it apart from any other flammable gas,” he said.  

California’s Office of the State Fire Marshal does have a 16-hour emergency response training program for alternative fuels vehicles. The curriculum allocates one hour to the discussion of hydrogen. But fire departments aren’t required to provide the course to their firefighters. Since the program was started in 2009, four classroom sessions have been conducted, each with 44 students. The manual for the program is also available for download on the State Fire Marshal’s website.

We have it available to departments. It’s whether or not they choose to access that,” said one instructor at the State Fire Marshal’s office.

Jennifer Hamilton, an education specialist at the California Fuel Cell Partnership, said she has been delivering hundreds of workshops on hydrogen fuel cells to firefighters. Currently, the California Fuel Cell Partnership and the Department of Energy are the two main organizations with outreach programs to educate firefighters on the properties of hydrogen and the working of hydrogen cars.

Hamilton estimates that her workshops have reached more than 5000 firefighters so far, but is quick to clarify that they do not qualify as true training.

“Training implies that there is some sort of certificate or credits and an approved curriculum,” she said. “We don’t give anything like that. Our program is at the information or awareness level.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story said that Gov. Jerry Brown had agreed to spend over $2 billion on hydrogen fueling stations. Gov. Brown has allocated $2 billion for clean-vehicle incentives over the next ten years. $20 million a year has been set aside specifically for hydrogen-fueling stations.

Report shows how much user fees actually covers the cost of road building

Link to report here.

Share of State & Local Road Spending Covered by User Fees and User Taxes
January 07, 2014
By Richard Borean
Tax Foundation

This week’s map comes from a report we released earlier this week that looks at how state and local road spending is funded. This map looks specifically at the share of state and local road spending covered by user fees and user taxes.

As Joseph Henchman explained in his report:
The lion’s share of transportation funding should come from user fees (amounts a user pays directly for a service the user receives, such as tolls) and user taxes (amounts a user pays, based on usage, for transportation, such as fuel and motor vehicle license taxes). When road funding comes from a mix of tolls and gasoline taxes, the people that use the roads bear a sizeable portion of the cost. By contrast, funding transportation out of general revenue makes roads “free,” and consequently, overused or congested—often the precise problem transportation spending programs are meant to solve.

Delaware comes in first place due to 78.6 percent of its road spending being funded by user fees and user taxes. Hawaii (77.3%) and Florida (68.8%) are close behind. By contrast, Alaska (10.5%), South Dakota (21.5%), Wyoming (24.5%), and Louisiana (25.4) raise little of their transportation spending from user fees and user taxes, instead subsidizing it heavily with general revenues.

All maps and other graphics may be published and reposted with credit to the Tax Foundation.

Toll violators: TxDOT to impound vehicles

Link to article here.

Is this really the best use of our law enforcement officers? It's likely to cost more to contract with law enforcement to collect the unpaid tolls than the cost of the tolls themselves.

Watch out, toll scofflaws: TxDOT may impound your car
By Andra Lim
Austin American Statesman
Friday, March 21, 2014

ROUND ROCK — Each month, Charles Ackridge is supposed to make a dent in the $40,000 or so a court decided he owed for thousands of unpaid tolls.

The Austin man sent his one and only payment, about $350, in 2009. But for years he’s taken the Texas 45 and Texas 130 tollways to get around town.

TxDOT plans to soon try a new way of reeling in the top toll scofflaws like Ackridge. It will partner with law enforcement agencies to impound cars that have racked up at least 100 violations within a year but continue to drive on tollways. A vehicle wouldn’t be released until the owner made good on the toll bill.

360 Tollway Project to convert free lanes to toll lanes in DFW

Link to article here.

Another example of TxDOT slapping tolls on your existing FREEway and downgrading your free lanes to permanent frontage roads. Note TxDOT is footing the bill for the project with tax money (so it could be a FREEway, not a tollway - no one should pay a toll to use a road that's paid for with their tax money) and the tolls will be paying it back. Traditionally, tolls pay back toll revenue bonds (which is NOT taxpayer money - if the toll traffic doesn't show up, the bond investors lose, not taxpayers). Wake-up DFW, you're going to have to pay tolls just to leave your driveway in short order if you don't rise up and stop this theft of your public highways!

360 Tollway Project Moving Forward
By Tim Cosec
NBCDFW.com
Tuesday, Mar 11, 2014

The Texas Department of Transportation is moving forward with plans to make a portion of state Highway 360 a toll road. The toll road would stretch from Sublett Road in Arlington to U.S. 287 near Mansfield.

Mansfield resident Elizabeth Rizzo has no problems taking SH 360 during the afternoons so she and her daughter can get frozen yogurt. During the morning and evening commutes, though, she goes out of her way to avoid it.

Driver charged with $6,000 in tolls on 495 Express Lanes

Link to article here.

You think dealing with government toll road bureaucrats is a nightmare, wait till you deal wiht a private company that the public cannot hold accountable says you owe them heaps of money and if you don't pay, you won't be able to drive.

Driver charged with $6,000 in tolls on 495 Express Lanes
By Ari Ashe
WTOP.com
March 13, 2014

MCLEAN, Va. -- A Fairfax County, Va. man who commutes on the 495 Express Lanes each day was sent a court summons and told he'd have to pay $6,000 in tolls, penalties and fees, WTOP Ticketbuster has learned.

Todd Metheny commutes from Springfield to McLean. He says the trip often took more than an hour on the Capital Beltway, but now takes less than 20 minutes on the 495 Express Lanes. But in January 2013, a problem with his E-ZPass account caused an overdraft in his account.

"I got a letter in the mail saying, 'We weren't able to charge you for the toll, shame on you. Take care of it immediately. Future violations will result in administrative penalties.' But by the time I got it, the future already happened," says Metheny.

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