The Oil Drum: Local

It's election time in New Zealand and Finance Minister Michael Cullen has mentioned Peak Oil in a campaign speech he gave on Wednesday, decrying the state of funding for rail transport and declaring "a new era in the rail industry".

Given the energy challenge we face in coming years, the so-called black hole of rail funding looks more like a pot-hole that urgently needs filling.

In 1908 our predecessors built the North Island Main Trunk line because they had a vision for a much more populous New Zealand and for opening up the North Island to settlement and economic development. The Main Trunk justified the faith of the settlers for more than 50 years, before the rise of road and air transport – helped by cheap oil prices – diminished its role as a carrier of both freight and passengers.

Today we have to come to terms with a new set of circumstances – the emerging reality of Peak Oil and the impact rising fuel prices have on our economy. Rail's energy efficiency has a new relevance and a new importance.

Apropos of yesterday's gas tax report and discussion, today we bring you Alan Drake's ideas on post-peak mitigation. Alan is an engineer, former accountant, and professional researcher based in New Orleans with best hopes for many. Alan would also like to thank the lovely and talented Wendi Berman for her editing skills and assistance.

Many proponents for public spending on Post-Peak Oil mitigation are attracted to gasoline and diesel taxes or more generic oil and/or carbon taxes. In an era of rapidly increasing oil (and all other energy) prices, passing such taxes will be politically difficult and take precious time.

I would like to propose an alternative tax for Phase I of Peak Oil mitigation that adheres to Sen. Russell Long’s famous dictum “Don’t tax you, don’t tax me, let’s tax that fellow behind the tree!”

World Trade Organization (WTO) rules allow for a specific exemption that will allow the United States of America to impose a non-discriminatory tariff (it applies to all goods and taxable services, with a specific exemption for essential goods) if the funds raised are used to reduce our structural trade deficit, i.e. our oil consumption.

Specifically, the WTO allows nations with a structural balance of trade deficit (which the USA certainly has) to apply a non-discriminatory tariff if the funds from that tariff are used to reduce the structural trade deficit (which reducing oil use certainly would do). A separate section of the WTO treaty allows the importing nation to exempt “essential” goods.

In 2006, the USA imported $1.861 trillion in goods (and exported $1.023 trillion). This allows for significant revenues from a small percent tariff.

This was written by Arthur Smith, who is a member of the Oil Drum under user name apsmith.

Energize America (as recently introduced to the Oil Drum) has been working on draft legislation to help America reach energy security in the face of peak oil and our over-dependence on the Middle East, and to address concerns about global warming through efficiency and energy alternative measures. This week saw the delivery of several legislative proposals to Congress. Among the commentary and responses there has been one issue that stood out to me: increasing support for rail, both passenger and freight.

The following is a first draft of a new "High Speed Passenger Rail Act", based on Act V - "The Passenger Rail Restoration Act" of Energize America version 5. The first portion consists of background information on the energy benefits and previous legislation, and the second is the actual proposed act. Your comments will help make this a more solid proposal that could make a real difference to the future of this nation!

John Dingell, D-Michigan, Ranking Democrat on Energy and Commerce Committee

With the Democrats now back in charge of the US House of Representatives, I thought it would be interesting to review their latest working document on energy and transportation policy. Back in July, a group of House Democrats released their vision of an energy and transportation policy to reduce dependence on oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Leading House Democrats, including Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD), Rep. John Dingell (MI), Energy and Commerce Committee Ranking Democrat, Rep. Jim Oberstar, Transportation Committee Ranking Democrat, Rep. Mark Udall (CO), co-chair of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus, Rep. Stephanie Herseth (SD), co-chair of the House Democratic Rural Working Group and member of the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, member of the House Transportation Committee and Task Force on Livable Communities, and Rep. Adam Schiff, member of the House International Relations Committee and co-chair/co-founder of the Democratic Study Group on National Security, released the following statements today after unveiling a comprehensive energy independence bill entitled the "PROGRESS Act."

So what's inside the Progress Act?

Staten Island's Old North Shore Rail Right of Way

[Update 9/20]: Last night at a community meeting with City Councilmember Michael McMahon (D-North Shore) a disgruntled citizen made this statement:

"The poor people of the North Shore, all they have is the bus, and if they don't have a bus, they're walking," he said. "It's inexcusable that all the politicians of Staten Island can't figure out how to open up the railroad."

In my continuing series on Restoring New York City's region rail network, today I will touch on NYC's forgotton borough, Staten Island. While Staten Island is the smallest borough in population, it has almost half a million people. It is also New York City's least dense and most automobile dependent borough by far. Part of this stems from geographic isolation, but also because the Island was not developed until after passenger automobiles became the norm in transportation. Indeed, it's major railway branch on the North Shore of Staten Island died long before the Verrazano Bridge was completed which brought a flood of development to the island.

However, the over-reliance on the automobile has created a traffic and transportation nightmare for Staten Islanders, who have one of the longest average commutes in the country - 44 minutes. So what's being done to address Staten Island's transit pain?

Like many New Yorkers, I don't start to believe that something is going to happen until lots of money is actually put behind them by the long list of Federal, State, City and Quasi-governmental "authorities" that must get involved in any major public works project. That's why today I'm starting to believe more and more than NJ Transit's plan for a new Hudson River Rail Tunnel, following the Port Authority's approval of $2 Billion for it.

Coming back from the UK, there are a couple of impressions that I would like to put down before they get overcome by the ongoing changes in our world that seem to be already happening.

Over the past weekend since my last post I took the train from London up to Nottingham, and then, on the following day, out to visit with friends (whom I will call, hoping they don't mind) the Sociologist and the Voice. When they drove me to the airport yesterday I left in the middle of a London rush-hour (to work). I arrived here in the middle of a US rush hour (after work). The traffic in both cases was very heavy, multi-lane, yet in the UK was moving faster and with better control. The Sociologist commented that the authorities had installed cameras and had adjustable speed limit signs along the highway that they changed to cope with the traffic. She commented that it was a system that worked and that, for example, holding traffic to 40 mph kept it moving at around that (which it did for us) while keeping a fixed speed would otherwise have brought it down to 15-20 mph (which was the US experience).

With a few days notice, Amtrak tickets for two from Miami cost $212 or $274 aboard the Silver Star or the Silver Meteor. You still need to factor in meals aboard Amtrak, which will raise that ticket price a bit. But the two prices seem roughly comparable for a party of two. But are they really?

Today I attended a historic moment in US transportation history. In attendance were all the local transportation authorities at the federal, state and local level in the region around Philadelphia. The final segment of the I-95/PA Turnpike Interchange was approved by the Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC), thus completing the Federal Interstate Highway System as it was designed in the 1950s. In one of those great ironic twists of fate, I was invited there to present the concept of peak oil on behalf of The Oil Drum community and to urge them to address their oil addiction by reducing automobile dependency. Typical Top-Down Planning - Just as one project is finally completed, it no longer fits the community's needs!