Triangle Business Journal reports:
After writing off $140 million and going into virtual hiatus for three years, Triangle Transit is launching a new bid to build a regional rapid rail system.
The government authority will pay $2 million to consultants…
Here’s a look at the most commonly used words in the 1,990 page Affordable Health Care for America Act, as introduced by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi this week.
Thanks to Steven Allen Adams at the West Virginia Examiner for the source document, and Lynn Walsh at the Buckeye Institute for the idea.
(Editor’s Note: Pioneer welcomes our Senior Fellow on Healthcare, Amy Lischko, to the blog. Amy will be writing on healthcare here from time to time, as well as working on research for Pioneer. Welcome.)
It’s worrisome when the state tells us what kind of provider network we need.
Today’s Globe article “Insurer [...]
Interesting look in the WSJ at SuperFreakonomics‘ take on dealing with climate change.
Suppose for a minute—which is about 59 seconds too long, but that’s for another column—that global warming poses an imminent threat to the survival of our species. Suppose, too, that the best solution involves a helium balloon, several miles of garden hose and a harmless stream of sulfur dioxide being pumped into the upper atmosphere, all at a cost of a single F-22 fighter jet.
Good news, right? Maybe, but not if you’re Al Gore or one of his little helpers.
Ya think? Thanks to Andrew Brietbart for combing C-SPAN so we don’t have to.
Vanpools are the safest, cheapest and most cost effective transit mode for connecting commuters with urban employment centers.
Terry,
Your post about the Left engaging in its usual mix of scare tactics and slimeball attacks is timely. Because the authors involved have never met most of the people they are sliming, never talked to them, never asked them what they think, asserting that the new Wake school board members or their supporters…
The Union Leader argues that the new health care bill unveiled this week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would be bad for New Hampshire.
Under Pelosi’s bill, families earning up to 150 percent of the poverty level are to be covered by Medicaid! That huge increase would have a disastrous effect on New Hampshire’s budget.This bill ought to draw an automatic “no” vote from Reps. Carol Shea-Porter and Paul Hodes. It would explode the already out-of-balance New Hampshire state budget and almost certainly result in a state income or sales tax. But Shea-Porter was on the stage with Nancy Pelosi, beaming with delight, when the speaker unveiled the plan. Maybe Hodes and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen will have more sense than to support this budget buster.
The Cascade Policy Institute in Portland, Oregon has released a report that will become must reading for those involved in the transportation, climate change, and energy debate. Written by Randall Pozdena, a former research vice president for the San Francisco Federal Reserve, the study found that increased mobility as measured by car use (vehicle miles traveled, or VMT) is strongly related to increased economic growth. This relationships wasn’t just statistical, but causal. Moreover, higher incomes led to innovations in automobile technology that actually reduce energy use. Thus, attempts to limit automobile use will work against very policy goals of those wanting to limit it.
From the executive summary:
The VMT-economy causality investigation finds that, indeed, VMT is a large and statistically significant driver of GDP. It finds also that, historically at least, the price of energy has not been an important driver of innovation in vehicle efficiency. If fuel efficiency could be improved, there would be positive economic effects, but limited, long-run effects on VMT. Specifically, the causality analysis reveals the following:
Although the causality between VMT and GDP is bidirectional, the primary one is for VMT to “cause” GDP growth. In the short run (2 years), an exogenous (an outside influence, such as regulation), downward shock to VMT results in a reduction of GDP of 90 percent of the size of the VMT shock. In the long run (20 years) the link is weaker, at about 46 percent.
In contrast, endogenous (an influence from within the model, research- or discovery-based) improvements in fuel efficiency appear to have a positive effect on GDP. A 10 percent increase in fuel efficiency yields only a 1 percent GDP increase in the short run, but a 6 percent effect in the long run.
VMT is not particularly sensitive to shocks to fuel price alone. The values calculated by the analysis predict well the effects of recent gasoline price increases on VMT. Increases in fuel efficiency cause positive rebounds (increases) in VMT. Although the effect is modest in the short run, after 20 years, exogenous increases in fuel efficiency cause completely offsetting increases in VMT, and thus, energy use, everything else equal.
This does not bode well for strategies such as regulated fleet fuel efficiency standards having a persistent effect on VMT or energy use. It suggests that much of the positive effect of fuel-efficiency improvements on GDP may flow from rebound effects on VMT.
