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The US Congress
Elki
get busyModerator, ClubPA mod
get busyModerator, ClubPA mod
Here is your thread to talk about US Congress. If you use it to talk about it anything else you will be kicked, possibly banned.
All the rules posted by SIG previously still apply
I'm gonna look at the last thread, and anyone who was kicked in the previous thread will be kicked from this one.
- You can talk about what Democratic and Republican legislators are doing, but this is not a thread to discuss the thread itself and other people posting in it.
- This is also not your thread to drop rants about your general feelings about the parties, the media, American society in general, how you were personally wrong in 2016, and the differences between leftists and liberals.
- You can feel however you want about what's happening in Congress, but you need to maintain a baseline level of respect to other people posting, otherwise don't interact with them.
- If you feel that a topic has ran its course, feel free to make your feelings known in a report. Trying to stop talk about some in topic by complaining in the thread will get you, at the very least, kicked.
- Don't be a dick.
- Don't expect to rules-lawyer your way into riding the edge of the rules throughout the thread, if you're consistently being a prick you'll be ejected.
All the rules posted by SIG previously still apply
I'm gonna look at the last thread, and anyone who was kicked in the previous thread will be kicked from this one.
Elki on
+7
This discussion has been closed.
Posts
Also, has Schumer or Biden given any indication what their main objectives are after the covid relief bill?
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
Joe Manchin continues being an utterly useless fuck that we should probably push into just becoming a republican
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/03/16/senator-calls-for-doj-merrick-garland-to-probe-fbi-fake-brett-kavanaugh-investigation/?sh=151f233efc2d
"Senator Calls For DOJ To Probe FBI’s ‘Fake’ Brett Kavanaugh Investigation"
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) keeps pushing himself towards the top of my favorite Senators list.
Sure, it might "delegitimize" the court, but for the most part, that damage has been done since at least Gorsuch, and arguably since Thomas (and every conflict of interest his wife has put him in, that he hasn't recused himself from).
It fits.
There is a lot of information a new Judiciart Chair could request and release and damn well we have the right to know.
And if the FBI did a deep dig and there really was nothing (not that I believe or expect) but if they did it does matter.
I've got some problems with it. The basis of the bill is $500 billion in grants (over 10 years) for electrifying the public transit system with grantees being states, localities, transit agencies, port authorities, Indian tribes, or combinations of it. I'm super skeptical of using grants to meet the climate crisis. They're good, don't get me wrong, but frankly we're at the point where if the federal government wants to go big then they need to actually contract out themselves and put the assets in the ground themselves rather than wait on states and localities to do it. You have a potential issue where really big energy states (*cough* Texas) won't take part in this kind of program because they don't particularly care about addressing the problem and are absolutely willing to turn down federal funds. There's also the issue where all the asset design and planning gets put on localities and other entities that don't necessarily have the capacity for that kind of work: all that will do is increase the cost of achieving the goal and increase the time it takes.
Then there's the dumb stipulations put in that don't really make sense for this. No state can receive more than $40 billion, and grants will prioritize low per capita income areas? Those are mostly rural areas (density tends toward higher per capita incomes) and ignore the fact that most transit carbon emissions come from urban areas without quality public transit. Grants still require a local match with only up to 85% of the cost? I mean 85% is great, but that 15% can be super fucking expensive depending on the area and the need. Which brings me to a final issue -- $50 billion a year is fucking nothing. Austin just passed a massive bond for a light rail project that will cost $10 billion over the next decade, so 2% of the total grant amount. That's 50 similar-sized projects, and the project frankly isn't even big enough to really address all the congestion and climate damage traditional commuting causes.
As I kind of brought up when the House released their plan for a national clean electricity standard, this is all fine, but in terms of a wish list it doesn't really seem like congress critters are thinking large enough and is kind of disappointing.
The pseudo private sector (aka without a whole lot of policy direction) has put over $200 billion into transmission infrastructure alone over the past two decades and we still need more: $500 billion won't cut it. Just disappointing to see this not only from the sponsors but also the advocacy groups supporting it. Really gives the sense that people really don't quite grasp the size of the issue.
Creating new light rail would be a NEW STARTS project, not electrification. (Expanding would be CORE CAPACITY.) It also would inherently be electrified because of what light rail is. Funds dedicated solely to electrification of public transit would basically mean pantographs over commuter rail lines and electric bus/ paratransit fleets. Which, $500bn should go pretty far for. Caltrain is spending $1.9bn to electrify, order new EMUs, and install PTC along it's 77 mile line, for an idea.
*Edit*
Additional context. CTA bought 20 electric busses for piloting a transition. They cost ~$1.5m per bus. With a fleet of 1,880 busses that would mean a capital cost of $3bn to replace every bus. (There'd be $millions in new electric infrastructure since they'd need their own transformers at every depot ++ to handle that kind of load) for the third largest public transit system in the country. It's substantial money.
Capital is the problem for electrification, though. The upfront costs for electric vehicles are much higher even if reduced maintenance and fuel ultimately makes it more affordable longer term. Especially with the added infrastructure costs to make the initial transition.
And electrifying commuter rail? It's $billions in order to provide... the same service to the same people. There are major ancillary benefits, but that doesn't really help justify a bond issue when you could be using the money for deferred maintenance or grade separations instead, which have more direct impact on service levels and community annoyance.
*Edit*
I'm not even sure if you can get matching funds from FTA if all you're doing is electrifying a line rather than expanding it. You couldn't even get it for upgrading existing lines without any substantial improvements before Core Capacity (thanks Obama) allowed spending on that existing transit.
Any law against murdering must have the support of murderers
Let's also not forget how Kavanaugh had a very sizable debt that was mysteriously paid off. As a citizen, I would very much like to know how, why and who paid that debt off because there is a pretty good indication that it was Kavanaugh who paid it off and that incredibly concerning because that could very well mean we have a sitting member of SCOTUS that has or still is trading votes to cover such a favor. Also I wouldn't be any less concerned about this, if Kavanaugh had been put there by democrats because I'm hostile to the idea of a sitting justice dealing in bribes; especially, when that justice is on the final court of the nation.
This might not be as bad as it seems on paper. I'd have to see where many of the plants are because I'm pretty sure most are in rural areas, even if their main customer base is urban and suburban areas. So that might make it a bit less worse if this results in many of those being made less fuck awful or replaced with something that used a cleaner source of energy. That said, this is still pretty dumb because a certain percent of those funds, at least 40% should be going towards things that are likely in urban and suburban areas. Like there should have been a huge carve out for mass transit in those areas because that would be a huge area that would address climate change, reduce pollution, improve the economy in areas that get it and help those in poverty or that are above poverty, but struggling to stay out of there.
Like don't get me wrong, I would love to see more mass transit options everywhere, but I get that there are areas where outside of the rail line that gets you out to the middle of nowhere. There just isn't much sense in having a mass transit setup beyond that because the density is so low, that it's impractical. Even with the areas where that is practical, you just aren't going to get the bang for your buck for getting a few bus routes up, that you would over say unfucking the Hampton Roads or DC mass transit setups. Plus, I can see more pushback in rural areas against most mass transit, if not all, because unfortunately, it's been made part of the culture war and those tend to be areas where even if one supports mass transit, you probably still need a personal vehicle for a decent number of things.
battletag: Millin#1360
Nice chart to figure out how honest a news source is.
And as for the 85% requirement, the Transportation Secretary has the option to "waive the requirement entirely and fully fund select projects."
As Moniker said, this is a bill targeted at one specific issue, it's not trying to be all things to all people. The summary specifically refers to the bill as a "step". Don't expect Warren et al to rest on their laurels and say "aha, climate crisis solved!"
While true, the O&M is still an important component here that often gets ignored. I'm not sure that focusing purely on electrifying commuter rail will really solve much when even non-electric commuter rail is still much much better emissions wise than SOVs: we'd want to expand public transit to make it more available to more people and increase ridership numbers, which flipping from non-electric to electric isn't exactly going to solve.
Right, but that is also exactly why funding electrification is never a priority compared to chasing funds for expanding the system. (Also, maintenance) It's an easy win to reduce both greenhouse emissions and particulate matter in mostly poor and minority neighborhoods on the 'wrong side of the tracks' who are at elevated risk of asthma and heart disease. Also the toxic miasma under Union Station when a dozen engines are idling during rush hour.
It also makes future expansion guaranteed to be electric, because the most expensive part of anything is the transition when you are maintaining two wholly different types of fleets and infrastructure. If you keep running diesel you'll continue to run diesel because you already have all the parts and expertise, until it becomes overwhelmingly more expensive than just doing the switch. As soon as that switch is pulled, then the inertia points that other direction and you keep to it. Even when this federal support fades away.
*edit*
It also shouldn't have much of any resistance or lawsuit delays or all the other NIMBY bullshit that new transit proposals face. It's literally just stringing up catenary over existing routes and upgrading existing bus depot's for the shiny new busses it's buying. No Environmental Impact Statement required.
I can buy that. Thanks for providing more context to this.
Standard Oil was bastards. See also: LA Red Cars
I have a dream that high speed mag lev will connect the major subway hubs. East coast and west coast first, then lines swing across the nation. I would love if I could hop on a train and be in Denver in 3 hours. Or New York City in 1 hour. We aren't there yet, but 20 years maybe.
A weekly reminder that Who Framed Roger Rabbit is a documentary and our modern world was constructed by greedy evil men.
I mean sure, but its been a century since they broke up and the rail system is still basically running on 1912 era technology. Refined 1912 era technology, but still. And while passenger rail may be marginal in the US, freight really isn’t. Its like if 99% of the US still had dirt roads because no one in the government ever bothered to invest in pavement.