The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Renewable Energy Technologies Grants Program is forking-over $1.5m of residents' hard-earned tax dollars to an incipient E85 producer making ethanol from sweet sorghum juice– rather than corn squeezins. Discounting all the Starbuckian Fair Trade blather– the Renergie company wants to build small local plants, give farmers a royalty from [theoretical] E85 sales, etc.– sorghum's advantages over corn include less pesticides and water requirements, higher yield (4700 to 7500 liters per hectare), rapid growth and the ability to grow marginal soil. Yes, well, as Checkbiotech reports, the song remains the same: subsidies! "Once state approval is received, Renergie’s variable blending pumps will be able to offer the consumer a choice of E10, E20, E30 and E85. Via use of the Blender’s Tax Credit, Renergie will be able to ensure that gas station owners are adequately compensated for each gallon of fuel-grade ethanol that is sold via Renergie’s variable blending pumps at their gas stations." 

The existing Maine Turnpike (I-95) toll plaza was built in 1969. It was expected to last 25 years. Unfortunately, the Authority built the facility on wetlands; it’s sinking at a rate of about an inch a year. Finding an alternative site has been… problematic. For one thing, the southern end of the Maine Turnpike is littered with wetlands. For another, the proposed “dry land” location is meeting stiff local opposition. According to The Portland Press Herald, York residents don’t want the $35m toll plaza. "They're taking out our neighborhood," says Michael Walek. Walek says a crash at the toll plaza involving a chemical truck carrying chemicals– or a chlorine leak at the local treatment plant– would endanger hundreds of lives. "You certainly couldn't evacuate a backed-up highway like we get in the summertime." Suggestion: Just tear down the plaza that’s sinking, tighten the budget belt and call it good.

For some reason, The New York Times op ed department reckons Mayor Bloomberg's campaign to reduce the number of New York City's free parking passes will help his/their campaign for an $8 per day congestion charge. Huh? First, that's a whole lot of people paying bupkis to bring their car into Manhattan (there may also be tens of thousands of counterfeit passes). People who wouldn't be happy paying $8 a day to the city government for the privilege of doing something they're doing day in, day out on the City's dime. Second, they're all government workers. Let me translate: union employees. No single group can kibosh a new government initiative faster than a public workers' union. If you think about it, the best way for Bloomberg to build support for the congestion charge would be to hand out MORE free parking passes. Oh, and to cut down on fraud, Bloomberg's created a new, centralized parking pass authority within the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau. Fair enough? Uh, well, that department currently accounts for 58k free parking passes.

Despite serious and ongoing questions about the wisdom of London's Congestion Charge, and popular opposition to importing the scheme to the Big Apple, The New York Times will not let the damn thing go. Not with the deadline for $350m in federal funds (i.e. your tax money) about to expire. At least this time the Op Ed folk aren't claiming that the congestion charge is anything more than a cash grab. Well, at least not initially… "Mass Transit Needs Congestion Pricing" begins by revealing that The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says it will need– yes need– $29.5b over the next five years for "improvements." The paper then argues that "New York [mass transit] riders pay a considerably higher share of the cost of mass transit than riders in other cities. Fares for buses, subways and commuter rails increased again this week to help pay the M.T.A.’s operating costs. It is time for New York drivers to help carry the burden. Congestion pricing fees can produce significant and recurring new money for mass transit’s capital expenses." Oh and "Congestion pricing, of course, has many other virtues. New Yorkers would enjoy the health and economic benefits of less gridlock and tailpipe emissions — and faster commutes." Riiiiiight. Just like they do in London.  

Other than a $1.3b manufacturing facility in Mississippi, ToMoCo has no plans to open another U.S. production facility. And yet The Salt Lake Tribune reports that local lawmakers are dangling the prospect of a new Toyota factory to justify HB436, a bill authorizing $5m for a statewide English literacy program. The money adds to a Toyota grant, which led Bill sponsor Rep. Greg Hughes, R-Drape to claim "Toyota is looking for opportunities to build a manufacturing plant. They are looking for communities they could bring this plant to that invest in their work force." In fact, the lawmaker's assertion was based on a letter sent to (not received from) Toyota's Veep Patricia Pineda, thanking the automaker for the grant. "We… understand that Toyota may have future interests for potential economic development that may include a motor assembly plant constructed in our state. As Utah's Legislature and Senate Leaders we welcome any such future thinking." The Trib reports that "attempts to reach Toyota Wednesday were unsuccessful." Next time, just drop us an email… 

As reported by OneNewsNow, more than 10k people have attended public hearings to "discuss" the proposed  four-thousand-mile network of toll roads known as the Trans-Texas Corridor (a.k.a. the "NAFTA superhighway").  "They're taking huge swaths of land. Some of it is prime agriculture land," Terry Hall of Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF) protests. "And they're going [to] hand it over to private entities for commercial gain." Texas Governor Perry calls such critics "unenlightened." Perry claims people need the road system so they "don't spend all their time in gridlock instead of being with their kids at soccer practice or back home with their families." The Houston Chronicle reports on the public hearing in Katy, where dozens of speakers decried the road system as "un-American." "These are the things that started the American Revolution– the seizing of houses and land, and taxation without representation," according to Dianne Hodge of Waller. "If we need a new American Revolution to restore a government of the people, by the people and for the people, then let it begin in Texas."

Clean Green Cars (CGG) is providing some rhetorical ammo for Porsche's fight against changes to London's Congestion Charge. CGG worries that the new emission-based charges are likely to increase CO2 emissions and congestion. That's cause Londoners are snapping-up what Clean Green calls "Congestion Charge Busters:" vehicles whose tailpipe emissions (120g/km of CO2 or less) give their owners a free ride. Some 200 British new car models qualify; in the last year, their market share has increased from 5.4 percent to 7.4 percent. Clean Green reckons that number will soon soar to 10 percent and beyond. While that's a good thing, it's possibly a bad thing. Congestion charging was supposedly designed to get people to drive less— not buy higher mileage cars and keep on driving. Or drive even more. Clean Green Cars recommends that London kill the exemption altogether and implement a graduated scale of charges: £4 for the lowest emission cars, £8 for moderate emission cars and £12 for vehicles that spew over 225g/kms of carbon. Fare enough?

E85 ethanol is methadone for America's oil addiction; it lets us believe we're kicking a bad habit. Which is fine if we could exercise our judgment as consumers. As taxpayers, E85's a done deal, on both the federal and state level. The Bradenton Herald reports that Florida politicians have already shelled-out some $25m in taxpayer-funded (who else?) grants to "alternative fuel developers." The "Farm to Fuel" initiative is set to throw tens of millions more in the same direction. As a member of the National Steering Committee of 25×25 (25 percent of America's fuel farmed by 2025), Florida Agriculture and Consumer Services Commissioner Charles Bronson is leading the pigs to the trough drive towards U.S. energy independence. From his taxpayer funded website, Bronson makes a Wall Street-style pitch for ethanol: "In the past decade, there have been great strides in biofuel technology and manufacturing facilities, substantially improving the efficiency of this fuel source. Florida will be the site of great advances in the development of fuel and energy alternatives, which is why we are pushing our 'Farm to Fuel' initiative so aggressively." In case you were wondering.

As drivers replace their gas-guzzlers with more efficient vehicles, drive less and/or start using alternate transportation, gas tax revenues are dropping. The Seattle Post-Intelligence reports that Washington state is responding to this environmentally beneficial trend with an annual tax tied to a vehicle's EPA-rated fuel economy. Under Senate Bill 6923, a Prius owner will pay $60 per year, while an H3 owner would be dunned three times that amount. Bill sponsor State senator Ed Murray denies the measure is a greenwashed cash grab. "The (governor's) climate advisory team said that the biggest global warming problem in this state is actually from transportation." How a state can have a "global" warming problem isn't quite clear, but Ed claims Washington's industry is "fairly clean." The real problem? "The number of automobiles." Lower-income drivers will be hardest hit by the new rules, as they are least capable of switching to newer, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Estimates show they'll have to pay an average of $113 per year. 

According to the LA Times, "Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to eliminate most of the 229 vehicles in the city's executive motor pool, as well as cars from other fleets, to help close a $155-million shortfall." The Mayor's proposal would take 93 of the City Council's 108 cars off the public payroll. Redefining chutzpah and violating the borders of plausibility, Council members say the move would hurt LA's air quality; their city-financed wheels are low emissions vehicles, while their personal wheels are gas-guzzling SUVs and suchlike. So it's all for the children? Well… City Controller Laura Chick, a former council member, said elected leaders use the cars to entice talented deputies who are in demand around City Hall. "It's become a traditional perk," said Chick, who would get to keep her 2004 Toyota Prius Hybrid under the mayor's plan. The Times says the Mayor and the Council will reach a compromise on the matter. Meanwhile, the LA Police run 1,105 take-home cars. A debate for another time? Count on it. 

Let’s say you’re driving down South Dakota Highway 50 and you’ve GOT to fill-up on E85. Obviously, you don't REALLY have to; any car that can run on E85 can run on “normal” gasoline. (And run farther too, but that's another story.) So let's just imagine it's a patriotic “our boys don’t have to die defending corn fields” thing. Or maybe a "I heart Federal Subsidies" deal. So, how do you know where to get a tankful of corn juice? Tom-Tom Go? Phone a friend? Not to worry! The South Dakota’s legislature is here to help! According to KXMC.com, the Mount Rushmore State just enacted legislation that requires state officials to list E85 availability on interstate highway signs. Hang on; “State officials say the bill is premature because South Dakota is in a regional compact of states that are planning a system of uniform signs for renewable fuels.” So they're doing this twice? Anyway, no word yet on how much either boondoggle’s going to cost. But we ALL know who’s going to pay for it…

You know the old joke that ends "We've already established what you are. We're just haggling over price"? Same deal here. Despite public outcry that forced Mayor Bloomberg to make congestion charging someone else's fault– a 17 member commission– The New York Times wants to keep the "dream" alive. Apparently, congestion charging is THE answer to gridlock. "London proved as much when it adopted congestion pricing, charging drivers to use certain streets. Traffic moved faster, tailpipe emissions went down and the fees collected went to improve public transportation." Uh, no. No. And no. While The Old Gray Lady is ready for NYC motorists to lay down (bend over?) for a regressive tax/PC money grab, the newspaper of record doesn't like "the unworkable suggestion of rationing entry to the city each day based on the last digit of license plates. There are other duds, including the idea — sure to die in Albany — of putting tolls on toll-free bridges over the East and Harlem Rivers. An $8 surcharge on taxi rides, part of another proposal, is another nonstarter." Those crazy commissioners, eh? And the winner is… forcing "most cars $8 and trucks $21 to drive on the city’s busiest streets during weekdays." Fare enough?

Buried in a report on the plug-in hybrid electric hybrid (PHEV) spinstorm about to descend on the Washington, D.C. auto show, USA Today reports that the U.S. Energy Department will fork-out up to $30m for PHEV projects. Apparently, the money is headed for boffins bent on building cars that "deliver up to 40 miles of electric range without recharging." Companies dedicated to created plug-ins that are "cost-competitive by 2014 and ready for commercialization by 2016." So who gets the dough? GM, Toyota, small start-ups? USA Today ain't sayin'. But they do have a killer quote from Ford's chief engineer for plug-in and fuel-cell vehicles. "If we can't decide within five years whether we can do this, something is wrong," Greg Frenette pronounced. Question: when did/does that five-year time frame start?

“Toll increases must be considered imminently,” says the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority (via Boston.com). This news comes just two weeks after a 25- to 50 cent toll increase on I90. What’s the rush? “Fiscal woes” could delay more than $65m worth of construction and maintenance work on the 138-mile-long highway. Time for some regrets as well. In 1996, six exits at the western end of the highway (Exit 1 to Exit 6) became toll-free to passenger vehicles. That move “has deprived the authority of $120 million that could have staved off the growing backlog of maintenance work,” says Turnpike Authority board member Mary Z. Connaughton. State Senator Michael R. Knapik says reinstating tolls on the first six exits "would not be a popular step at all, to say the least.” State Representative David P. Linsky puts a finer point on it. "I am adamantly opposed to tolls going up, because I know that over 50 percent of the tolls we're paying now on the Weston-to-Boston extension aren't going to the road we're riding on, but to the Big Dig," he decries. Taxation without transportation?