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Electrification of rail, a global phenomena (with, sigh, a major exception in the US/Canadian market), has significant positive impacts: Improved rail capacity with no other change, roughly 15% improvement in capacity due increased efficiency in braking/acceleration Interesting options for improving grid reliability, connections, etc … rail right of way as viable for power lines Reduced […]

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Reading the latest editorial by Marcia McNutt, the editor of Science magazine, makes one wonder: Does she understand and have any respect for ‘the Dismal Science‘?  Very simply, McNutt failed to demonstrate basic knowledge about economics (that ‘dismal science’) and failed to consider basic business calculations (and ignored many other reasons why Keystone XL is […]

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Yet another guest post from the thoughtful BruceMcF. There has recently been a flurry of activism regarding regulatory approval of the “XL Pipeline” in support of bitumen production from Canadian Tar Sands. Along with hundreds arrested in front of the White House, this is an issue that has attracted substantial attention from a variety of […]

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Yet another guest post from the thoughtful BruceMcF. I’ve written several times about the direct potential of the Steel Interstate project to cut our oil imports by 10% by getting long haul freight trucking off the road. It would at the same time relieve the crushing burden imposed by long haul trucking on our over-worked, […]

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Yet another guest post from the thoughtful BruceMcF. Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence Suppose that you wanted to inject a framing into a purely political strategy which also happened to involve sabotaging the future of the nation’s economy? “We sabotaged the future economy.” Hmmm, that would be a bad talking point there. […]

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BruceMcF is a thinker re rail transportation who merits heeding … in this guest post, he looks at Amtrak’s value as it faces the budgetary axe threat from the Republican Study Committee. The Republicans have won one of the established political Power Positions in American Politics, and so they propose to eliminate funding for Amtrak: […]

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This is a guest post from Renzo Gasolini who, with some painful satire, highlights how (even) the Chinese have “left behind” the United States in a key path toward a prosperous and climate-friendly future.  For those who might question how much this rings true, perhaps it is worth considering that in Wisconsin. Republican candidate for […]

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Another guest post from the extremely thoughtful and insightful BruceMcF. Bruce’s thoughts, writ large, about transport policy and, more specifically, electrified rail merit attention and action. Burning the Midnight Oil for Living Energy Independence As Dean Baker reported on the (bookmark worthy) Real World Economics Review Blog, new home sales figures for July are out, […]

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This guest post by the very thoughtful BruceMcF focuses on the public transit / rail version of the need to look beyond stove-pipes to full values for a true cost-benefit analysis. Just like so many fossil fuel costs are externalized (pollution, whether causing cancers or climate change), so too are many transit benefits. Those investing […]

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Electrification of rail is one of the most effective currently available technology paths for reducing carbon emissions. It should be on the top of the policy agenda. It is, basically, nowhere to be found. Here is a guest post by the very thoughtful BruceMcF, looking at this gap and providing a path forward for addressing […]

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