Recent Streetsblog USA posts about Oil

National Transit Union Proposes a Smart Fuel Subsidy

By Ben Fried | Jun 6, 2008 | 29 Comments

Tired of hearing about gas tax holidays, bridge toll suspensions, and rebates for drivers? Here’s a policy proposal that will actually improve commutes, not just encourage trips by car: subsidizing fuel for transit systems. As the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week, rising diesel prices are hitting transit agencies hard (preview only), leading to […]

Is Big Environment Ready to Say America Is Hooked on Cars?

By Ben Fried | Feb 25, 2008 | 12 Comments

The NRDC’s "Beyond Oil" campaign. Are national environmental groups ready to shift their strategy? Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph White, who covers the auto industry in his "Eyes on the Road" column, made a prediction that livable streets advocates will welcome. In the next year, he forecast, national environmental groups will re-focus […]

Today’s McMansions, Tomorrow’s Tenements

By Aaron Naparstek | Feb 22, 2008 | 19 Comments

This weekend’s must-read article is "The Next Slum?" by Christopher B. Leinberger in the Atlantic Monthly. He posits that the suburban American dream that was launched at the 1939 New York City World’s Fair appears to be running out of gas. Emerging in its place is the growing desire of many Americans to live in […]

Addicted To Oil: Ranking States’ Vulnerability

By Jason Varone | Jun 27, 2007 | 3 Comments

A new NRDC report ranks U.S. states on their level of oil vulnerability measured by how heavily each state’s citizens are affected by increases in oil prices. States are also ranked on their implementation of solutions to reduce oil dependence. The report found that while oil dependence affects all states, some are hit harder economically […]

An Old Car Interred

By Aaron Donovan | Jun 18, 2007 | 19 Comments

Bud & Walter Brewer Collection/Tulsa Historical Society, via The New York Times. Fifty years ago last Friday, the people of Tulsa, Oklahoma, assembled downtown and buried a brand new Plymouth Belvedere hardtop as a time capsule to be opened in 2007. The car, and $100 plus 50 years worth of accrued compound interest (a bit more than $700), would […]

Parochial Thinking Amid Ominous Signs

By Aaron Donovan | Dec 12, 2006 | 1 Comment

The Committee to Keep NYC "Congestion Tax Free." Front row, left to right: John Corlett, Automobile Club of New York; Ray Irrera, Queens Chamber of Commerce; Council Member David Weprin; Lobbyist Walter McCaffrey; Joe Conley of Queens Community Board 2. Ominous warnings relating to energy consumption have come recently from people on both ends of the political spectrum. The free-marketeers at […]

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