Here's what I think about the transportion bill that relently passed the Senate. Reading it is your at your option, of course. Mike
--------- Forwarded message ---------- http://madison.indymedia.org/newswire/display_any/16467 ------------------------------------------------------------ Senate Passes Boondoggle of a Transportation Bill ------------------------------------------------------------ Thursday, 19 February 2004 by Michael T. Neuman Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Summary: In spite of global warming getting unmistakably worse by each passing month, the U.S. Senate voted last week to direct more funds toward highway construction in the next 6 years than ever before. This will only end up accommodating increasing volumes of fuel-burning, motorized transportation by the number one emitter of greenhouse gases in the world -- the U.S. transportation sector. The bill now goes on to the House of Representatives, where it faces an uncertain future. You can make a difference by contacting your representative and suggesting what you'd like to see come out of this transportation bill. The U.S. Senate passed the largest public works spending bill in U.S. history last week (Feb. 12), by a vote of 76 senators voting in favor of it and 21 senators opposed. The transportation bill authorizes federal expenditures of $318 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation's six-year (boondoggle) plan, enabling billions of public dollars to be spent on major transportation projects, mostly new highway construction projects, which will only serve to hurt the country in the long run. Wisconsin Senators' Herb Kohl and Russ Feingold were among only four Democrats who responsibly voted against the boondoggle transportation bill. The legislation would amount to an increase of about 45% above the current authorization statute, the 1998 Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, and will encourage more automobile driving by expanding the capacity of the nation's highway system, allowing the nation's highway system to accommodate even more motorized vehicles than it does now, faster and farther. Senator James Inhofe (R-Okla.) led the floor fight for passing the so-called "Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act" (SAFETEA), which directs $255 billion for highways, $56.5 billion for mass transit and $6 billion for highway safety. The bill provides essentially no money for public programs aimed at encouraging people to drive less, or at least car pool and take transit more, as alternatives to driving solo in their own personal cars and SUVs. The transportation bill now moves to the House, where Rep. Tom Petri (R-Wis.), as chairman of the House Transportation Committee, will take a leading role in crafting the House version of the legislation. Even though the Senate has passed the bill, it must still go through a conference committee, where Senate and House members will need to reconcile their versions of the bill. Each chamber will then have to vote on the conference committee's report. In spite of earlier rumors, the Senate wisely chose not to attach energy legislation to the bill. (At least it did something right with this bill!) http://www.construction.com/NewsCenter/Headlines/ENR/20040213a.asp http://www.jsonline.com/news/state/feb04/207870.asp Meanwhile, things continued to get hotter on the planet Earth. The globally averaged land and ocean surface temperature for January 2004 was 1.0�F (0.54�C) above the 1880-2003 long-term mean for January. This made January 2004 the 4th warmest January since 1880 (the beginning of reliable instrumental temperature records). This makes for 93 consecutive months of above average global monthly temperatures of late. http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2004/jan/lo_hem_jan_pg.gif http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/research/2003/ann/glob_jan-dec_pg.gi f http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/oa/climate/research/2004/jan/jan04.html#Major%20 highlights Please contact your elected House representative and tell them this bill caters to too much highway building. Tell your representative you want a transportation bill that does not harm our environment and the overall public health. The bill the Senate passed promises jobs in the construction industry only, and they come at great expense and harm to the environment -- both in the short and long term. The country would be better off if the hundreds of billions of dollars this transportation bill gives to the highway industries were rebated back to the public in the form of financial incentives (rebates), for people to drive less (or not at all). The money could then be used by people for things like education, health care for the elderly, food and shelter, rather than going only to the highway and bridge building industries to pave over more acres of farmland and wildlife habitat, dig up more sand and gravel for road construction, and bridge more waterways, freeways and urban landscape. There are better uses for these public funds than what is proposed in the proposed six-year transportation plan. All it requires is for people to drive less, not more. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ClimateArchive/message/229 http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/16257/index.php Madison IMC: http://madison.indymedia.org/ ________________________________________________________________ The best thing to hit the Internet in years - Juno SpeedBand! Surf the Web up to FIVE TIMES FASTER! 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