Month: May 2008
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Let’s Not Forget Tysons Roads
Among the more persuasive objections I’ve heard to the Rail-to-Dulles project has come from our blogger friend Too Many Taxes. He has argued that the looping of the heavy rail line through Tysons Corner would be accompanied by such a large increase in development density around the rail stations that, notwithstanding the additional transportation capacity…
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I’ll Take Some Solar, Please. Put It on my Tab.
Shrewd, very shrewd. Dominion is asking the State Corporation Commission for permission to offer customers two options for purchasing renewable energy, be it solar, hydro, wind, biomass, wave, tide or geothermal. Under one option, customers would be billed for what it costs Dominion to acquire the “green” energy from independent green power producers. Under the…
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Just Call Me Bigfoot
Virginia metropolitan regions are among the biggest contributors to global warming, asserts a new Brookings Institution study, “Shrinking the Carbon Footprint of Urban America.” According to the study… Washington: The average resident in metropolitan Washington emitted 3.115 tons of carbon from highway transportation and residential energy in 2005 — ranking it 89th out of the…
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Sowell on Economics: A Book Report
Memo to: James Atticus BowdenFrom: Peter Galuszka Re: Reading Assignment Okay, I got my copy of Thomas Sowell’s “Basic Economics,” have skimmed through it and am ready to make some points. I know your views are generally the polar opposite of mine, but I think I deserve at least a Gentleman’s C” for my efforts.…
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The Latest Monkey Business in the Transportation Debates
Round and round the transportation debate goes. Where it will end up, nobody knows. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine advanced a novel argument in favor of his $1 billion-a-year package of tax increases at a transportation conference in Goochland County yesterday. Increases in statewide revenue sources are needed, he argued, to address the intensifying inadequacy of…
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Transportation? Ho, Hum. People Are Just As Riled by Illegal Immigration.
The disconnect between the general public and the special interests pressing for taxes for transportation (the Axis of Taxes) seems to widen with each passing day. As the General Assembly gears up for a special session to address transportation funding, according to the latest Commonwealth Poll, transportation ranks only fourth among the topics that the…
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Implications of Shrinking Trade Deficit Hitting Home in Hampton Roads
I hate to say I told you so, but… I told you so. Back in February, I took note of major shifts in global trading patterns resulting from the declining value of the U.S. dollar. In “The Inscrutable Meaning of the Shrinking Trade Deficit,” I noted that a weaker dollar would translate into greater U.S.…
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Vehicle Miles Traveled — Down 4.3 Percent
As the General Assembly gears up for a special session to hammer out a transportation-funding “solution,” you’ll hear a lot about the catastrophic decline in gasoline tax revenues. Because maintenance projects get first crack at all state gas-tax dollars, the plunge in revenues translates into a dollar-for-dollar reduction in construction spending. You’ll hear a lot…
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One of the World’s Silliest Tax Breaks
What if they gave a tax break and nobody came? The solons in the General Assembly thought it might be a good idea to provide a sales tax holiday for the purchase of hurricane supplies. Not surprisingly, John Reid Blackwell with the Times-Dispatch has reported, hardly anyone could be spotted last weekend loading up on…
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Are These Plants Really Worth Saving?
You’ll be glad to know that Fluor-Lane, Transurban and the Virginia Department of Transportation have partnered with a local conservation group to “rescue” native plants in staging areas for construction of two high-occupancy toll lanes along the Capital Beltway. Volunteers from Land and Waters Inc., based in Falls Church, joined employees of the construction companies…
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Insurance, Risk and Climate Change
Money talks and bull**** walks, as the old saying goes. When it comes to the debate over Global Warming, a formidable quantity of the latter is in evidence. Ideology and partisanship have badly skewed the debate over public policy, as journalists, politicians and special interests on both sides of the debate cherry pick the evidence…
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The Power of People Networks
One of the key concepts in Richard Florida’s new book, “Who’s Your City?” is that of the “clustering force,” a knowledge-economy phenomenon that reward people for congregating in places where they can network and collaborate with one another. (See “The Clustering Force Be With You.”) The need to cluster is impelling smart, creative people to…
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Thanks to a Silent Partner
Today Becky Dale compiled her last daily digest of Virginia transportation/land use clips, a resource that I have leaned upon to keep track of developments across the state. I have owed much of my ability to keep tabs on obscure controversies and trends around Virginia to stories I have picked up from the email that…
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Reading Assignment
I completed my reading assignment from Jim Bacon and wrote my response for a Virginia perspective as installments. So, here is a reading assignment – an economics book without math. Piece of cake. “Basic Economics, A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy”, Thomas Sowell, published in 2000. Consider to what degree Virginia’s public policy issues are…
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Mass Migration and Superstar Cities
The United States has seen at least two great migrations in its history: the great trek of settlers to America’s seemingly endless frontier through the end of the 19th century, and then the migration of farmers to towns and cities in the 20th century. The late 20th century has experienced a significant movement of “snowbirds”…