OBAMA VICTORY COULD HAVE GREAT IMPACT ON PUBLIC TRANSPORT
Barack Obama’s election as the 44th President of the United States will have wide-ranging effects on the nation’s energy and transportation policies, says the US transportation press, as he has pledged to increase funding for infrastructure and alternative energy development and to make efficiency standards more stringent.
According to Obama’s campaign platform, he will “strategically invest $150 billion over 10 years to accelerate the commercialization of plug-in hybrids, promote development of commercial scale renewable energy, encourage energy efficiency, invest in low emissions coal plants, advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure, and begin transition to a new digital electricity grid.”
Obama plans on implementing a cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions by 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, increasing fuel economy standards 4% each year and mandating that all new vehicles are flexible fuel vehicles. He supports a 100% auction that will ensure all industries pay for all emissions they release, with $15 billion of the money raised from allowances going towards clean energy development and energy efficiency improvements.
“Advances in biofuels, including cellulosic ethanol, biobutenol and other new technologies that produce synthetic petroleum from sustainable feedstocks offer tremendous potential to break our addiction to oil,” the campaign said. “Barack Obama and Joe Biden will work to ensure that these clean alternative fuels are developed and incorporated into our national supply as soon as possible.”
In a National Public Radio interview during the campaign, Obama said “No doubt we have to invest more in our infrastructure. I’m also very interested in taking a look at innovations all around the country to deal with improvements in mass transit and reduce congestion. The basic notion that we should do what we can to reduce congestion, to reduce pollution, to reduce consumption of foreign oil and to then to reinvest dollars into our infrastructure and mass transit.”