Transportation Report for 9 April 2007 meeting

The Community Environmental Council (CEC) held a second meeting on March 29 seeking input on the Transportation chapter of their Fossil Free by 2033 publication.

The meeting was not given adequate notice and some key people were inadvertently left off of the invitation list.

Once again, several people raised the exact concerns that I raised at our ExecComm meeting in the past two months:

That the CEC's vision of transportation is too-heavily weighted toward changing details of automobiles and too little on more visionary options.

He gave us a spreadsheet at the meeting with his view of prioritizing different actions and policies. However, many people questioned the logic of the prioritization. I will attach a copy of that spreadsheet.

In Al Gore's testimony to the Senate last month, he emphasized economic incentives and disincentives as being key to changing consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, Gore advocates entirely eliminating income taxes and replacing them with carbon taxes.

Yet, the CEC proposal turns this on its head, giving low weighting to economic incentives. Following were my questions in advance of the next meeting for April:
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*** I am more confused than ever with the impact numbers. How did Ethanol get a 10? Does Ethanol really consume 0 energy and fossil fuel to produce?

*** How did pricing policies get such low numbers? How did pay as you drive for roads get a 1? Yet gas taxes get a 5? And do you really think a parking cash-out program deserves a 2? An annual trip to Hawaii (approximate value of a parking space) for not driving to work gives that little impact?

*** And I am still confused about affordability? How did electric bikes get a 7 while hybrid private motor vehicles get a 9? When gas prices went up, my bus driver neighbor on disability bought an electric scooter, but still has her same 12 year old car.

I am sorry, but I am more confused than before! Thanks for any insights that could make this process more accurate!
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Best wishes,
Robert