The Republican Senate is attempting to rush hearings for President Trump’s cabinet choices. Everyone has to act now to insist that Congress follow established procedures and law for vetting ethics and conflicts of interest. Several candidates with many interests involving the government have yet to file the paperwork necessary to show how they will separate their businesses from their work in government, led by the President himself who appears determined to skirt rules that should apply to … [Read more...]
Five Cheap Oil Myths
Clap your hands for cheap gas. Everyone else is. Allow me to prick the happy oil-price balloon. Prices have declined rather quickly from well over $4 a gallon last summer to—supposedly—$2 somewhere. (I am never where super cheap gas is.) But don’t cheer too hard. The “good” news is hype. Myth 1: Lower oil prices boost the economy Dropping oil prices are described as a “windfall” and a “stimulus package” for American consumers in stories like this one. This is exactly the language that oil and … [Read more...]
Save Cities. Kill the Highway Trust Fund.
Vast, empty rural freeways to nowhere and suburban beltways clogged for miles. This is the mess the Highway Trust Fund has made. It is the best model for financing transportation. But it’s got to die. When the nation was truly dedicated to building an interstate mobility network to be funded by user fees, the Trust Fund made sense. Now it has fallen victim to right-wing ideology, which deems any increase in the fees an anathema tax increase. They think their unbending stance will defeat the … [Read more...]
Rising Seas Are Not Shoreline Doomsday
Climate change is not a death sentence to vulnerable coastal communities in North Carolina. Unfortunately the political reaction to new flood maps, according to this Washington Post story, has been to deny the threat rather than to engage with it. The only other option seems to be to write off the billions of value on barrier islands whose future is likely measured in decades not centuries. The Federal Rebuild by Design disaster-resilience effort is essential because it develops alternatives … [Read more...]
Stop the Suburb Bashing, Already
I grew up at a time when the suburbs ruled and cities were burning. So naturally I could not be more thrilled at the vitality I find in cities. It is actually possible nowadays to say that New York City is a pleasurable place to live, not just that its advantages make its horrors tolerable. I lived through several decades in which the guiding presumption by anyone that mattered was that big, old cities were dinosaurs, doomed to the dustheap of history. So naturally I find myself skeptical of … [Read more...]