President Donald Trump’s team has compiled a list of about 50 infrastructure projects nationwide, totaling at least $137.5 billion, as the new White House tries to determine its investment priorities, according to documents obtained by McClatchy’s Kansas City Star and The News Tribune.
“The drought that the storms may have ended has been the hydrological equivalent of a severe economic recession, and proved once again that California has not provided enough water storage to sustain its nearly 40 million residents and its economy when precipitation is scant. Moreover, were predictions of climate change to prove true, it would mean California could depend even less on the natural reservoir of mountain snowpacks because it would receive more of its precipitation as rain, and thus would logically need more man-made storage to close the gap.”
A confidential Federal Railroad Administration risk analysis, obtained by The Times, projects that building bridges, viaducts, trenches and track from Merced to Shafter, just north of Bakersfield, could cost $9.5 billion to $10 billion, compared with the original budget of $6.4 billion.
Brown’s plan unveiled on Tuesday would add $4.3 billion a year over the next decade on everything from repairs to additional public transit. The governor convened a special session of the Legislature to deal with transportation funding in the summer of 2015, but it finally fizzled out last fall.
To gain the backing of business groups, moderate Democrats and Republicans, Lapsley said any deal must include measures that speed up approvals for transportation projects and the delivery of money to them.
Given a choice among about 20 issues, nearly nine in ten voters believe that Sacramento officials are not spending enough time on fixing roads, highways and bridges in California. Eight in ten voters believe state leaders should be working harder to encourage economic development to attract new businesses to California, and about three quarters of voters want to see more attention paid to addressing high housing costs
Counting back, it’s believed that a complete transportation bill would have to be introduced no later than Friday to be legally considered in a lame-duck session – and perhaps by Wednesday, since legislative offices are supposed to be closed on Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.
Anyone living in California who’s paying attention knows what venture capitalist Thiel meant. While a handful of Silicon Valley social media entrepreneurs have amassed almost indescribable wealth, and fundamentally transformed how humanity communicates, investment in boring things like roads, bridges, tunnels, ports, aqueducts, reservoirs and railroads – the list is endless – has stagnated. Especially in California. Flying cars? Forget about it. Go tweet.
The California High-Speed Rail Authority filed a waiver request earlier this week with the Federal Railroad Administration that would exempt the authority from the “buy America” requirements of federal law because no U.S. passenger train manufacturers currently exist.
The consumption of U.S. finished motor gasoline reached a new high of 9.7 million barrels per day (b/d) in June 2016, surpassing the previous one-month high of 9.6 million b/d set in July 2007. U.S. gasoline consumption during summer 2016 (June through August) increased by 169,000 b/d, or 1.8%, relative to the same period in 2015. . . Vehicle miles traveled (VMT) were also high in summer 2016, setting a new record in June. From summer 2015 to summer 2016, VMT grew by 9.3 billion miles per day, an increase of nearly 3.0%. This is slightly more than the 1.8% growth in gasoline consumption over that period. Compared to summer 2007, summer 2016 VMT increased more than 6.4%, while gasoline consumption only increased 0.5%.
To experience America’s crumbling infrastructure firsthand, look no farther than San Francisco and Oakland — ranked this week by a transportation research group as being home to the worst roads of any large urban region in the country.
A sharp pullback in spending by cities and states on infrastructure—from highways to sewage systems to police stations—is weighing on U.S. economic growth. . . The decline depressed gross domestic product growth this spring and was on track to weigh on growth again in the third quarter.
Since 2009, the hallmark of California water policy has been a commitment to the coequal goals of improving both water supply reliability and ecosystem health. While this commitment remains as vital today as it was in 2009, recent actions suggest we’re due for a refresher course on what it really means. . . Draft flow objectives for the San Joaquin released this month by the State Water Resources Control Board staff raise serious questions about their commitment to a state policy founded on the coequal goals. Requiring up to 50% of unimpaired flow to remain in the river for the purported benefit of fish species, as proposed by State Water Board staff, does not reflect a balanced approach. . . The State Water Board staff’s draft plan would deal a severe blow to many communities already struggling with drinking water quality and quantity challenges. It also would make it extremely difficult for local agencies to achieve state-mandated goals under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, both by compelling growers to pump more groundwater and by reducing the amount of surface water available to recharge groundwater basins.
After weeks of uncertainty and pressure from members of Congress, federal officials on Wednesday announced a plan for managing water releases from California’s largest reservoir this summer in a manner that will not involve cutbacks in farm water deliveries – at least if all goes as hoped.
California’s drought-stricken Central Valley harbors three times more groundwater than previously estimated, Stanford scientists have found. Accessing this water in an economically feasible way and safeguarding it from possible contamination from oil and gas activities, however, will be challenging.