Alternative Fuel

When California recently resolved its mammoth budget deficit, it also moved to ease restrictions on transportation public-private partnerships, a politically controversial idea that over the long run could help control costs to taxpayers of improving overloaded roads, rails, and freight facilities. P3s, as the arrangements are called, draw from among construction, engineering, highway management, and infrastructure investment firms (often funded partly Read More ›

This article, published by Seattle PI, mentions the Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute: The conference, sponsored by the Discovery Institute’s Cascadia Center for Regional Development and a number of partners, will draw an impressively broad range of experts from clean-energy groups, business and government. The rest of the article can be found here.  

The need for public-private partnerships to help rebuild the nation’s overburdened and underfunded surface transportation network is growing. Even before gas prices spiked and gas tax hike prospects dived, the Washington State Transportation Commission was calling for P3s. They did so in this January 2007 report, and then again here. The January, 2007 report states that P3s should be closely Read More ›

During the past decade, SUVs seemed to take over the roads. Average incomes rose. The price of gas remained relatively low. And yet, despite all that, per-capita gasoline consumption in Washington actually dropped 2 percent, according to a new report from the Seattle think tank Northwest Environment Watch. The report attributes the decline mostly to “smart-growth” policies aimed at reining Read More ›