...which was unveiled May 17, is the first governmental attempt to get a handle on this nation's energy appetite since the late 1970s. The president flew to St. Paul to explain his plan.
Jimmy Carter's "moral equivalent of war," when White House heat was turned down and air conditioning up, has now become "can we drill and mine our way out of today's energy crisis? And at what price? Or can we buy needed time through conservation and changing our lifestyle including the way we ship goods and move people?
The most recent energy plan's implications for transportation and railroads are perhaps clearer: Since burning coal generates 52% of the nation's energy needs, and since coal is king of the railroads, its future looks very promising. But how to burn it cleaner and more efficiently is being asked.
By 2020, insists Vice President Dick Cheney, we will need 1300 new power plants on line. This bodes well for the rail industry.
But for the most common mode of passenger transportation -- the automobile -- the Bush energy plan looks at improving C.A.F.E., or Corporate Average Fuel Efficiency. That translates into getting better mileage out of our cars. With technology in place for better than 70 miles to the gallon, too many SUVs, light trucks and other gas guzzlers continue to struggle to reach 20 mpg.
There was no mention by the president of the advantages of rail.
Additional legislation has been submitted to repeal the 18.4cent federal tax on a gallon of gasoline to try and head off coming price spikes. But these bills are meeting with stiff resistance from the states who have come to depend on such monies for road construction and rehabilitation. Meanwhile a 4.3 cent per gallon fuel tax laid upon railroads in 1990 for "deficit reduction," still on the books, may be headed for repeal.
Members of the Railroad Subcommittee of the U.S. House have registered strong support for the Railroad Track Modernization Act of 2001 (HR 1020). But they are miffed that the Federal Railroad Administration that no new rail infrastructure upgrades have been approved under the Railroad Rehabilitation and Improvement Financing (RRIF) Act.
