Last week, we reviewed transportation in the region after the September 11 attacks, noting some of the system’s strong and weak points, and urging that policy-makers and planners take the latter to heart.  We argued that the region’s response contained grounds for optimism, but that the country as a whole seemed to be learning little from last fall’s events.  Here we elaborate on the second part of that thesis: 

The attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon were also attacks on air travelers, airlines and airports.  When the air system was grounded last September, inter-city travelers were not able to rely on a flexible system of alternatives the way displaced New Yorkers did.  The temporary shut down and the subsequent drop off in air travel demand also required a huge infusion of public resources to keep the airline industry afloat. The airlines continue to reel, service is being cut in small markets and travel-related industries like tourism are feeling the impact.

A less vulnerable, more efficient system would emulate the movement in Europe to replace some air trips under several hundred miles with attractive rail service. But this summer’s squabble over the fate and funding of Amtrak — especially the ill-conceived positions of the Bush administration (MTR #372)— indicates that movement in this direction will be an uphill battle. 

The best thinking and research about this type of development is being done not by government, but by advocacy groups.  The Great American Station Foundation and Chicago’s Center for Neighborhood Technology are developing a “Reconnecting America” project to press the case for integrated planning and investment in a network of medium distance passenger rail and inter-city bus services, with improved connections to key airports and to downtown transportation hubs.  CNT calculates that 58% of U.S. flights are less than 500 miles in length, and is developing an analysis of the cities that might be served by rail from the country’s hub airports.

Next year, Congress will for the first time simultaneously take up the reauthorization of both surface transportation and aviation laws, and grapple with the future of Amtrak.  Reconnecting America’s arguments are sufficiently compelling and timely that they may be able to lend a real focus to these proceedings  http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/  

In an early September editorial reviewing the Bush administration’s response to the September 11 attacks, the NY Times argued that President Bush had failed to “leverage the political and moral capital Sept. 11 provided” to make the United States a different, more responsible nation.

“For instance,” the paper wrote, “it is hard to imagine a sharper reminder of America’s dependence on the volatile regimes of the Middle East for their oil than the events of September 11.Yet instead of charting a new course, one requiring major investments in energy efficiency and the development of alternative energy sources – the two surest roads to greater energy independence – Mr. Bush clung stubbornly to the notion that the United States could drill its way to self-sufficiency.  Absent presidential leadership, Congress did little better, rejecting modest efforts to tighten fuel economy standards while showering producers of traditional fossil fuels with a staggering array of subsidies and tax breaks.” 

We have little to add to this argument, except to reinforce it with very brief account of a work entitled “Ending the Oil Age,” released last February by Charles Komanoff, a Tri-State Campaign trustee.

Komanoff presaged the Times’ observations, noting the public’s post-September mood, and reviewed how the Saudi Arabian political and economic elite, in control of world oil “swing production” that keeps pipelines full and prices stable, accommodates dissent by tolerating militant religious networks. “Our dangerous liaison with the Saudi regime is only the most egregious manifestation of the national-security disaster created by our programmatic commitment to the over-consumption of oil.” The kingdom supplies more than 8% of oil consumed in the United States.

“Ending the Oil Age” reminds that thirty percent of the world’s oil extraction comes from ten countries bordering the Persian Gulf or situated on the Arabian peninsula.  These countries have less than 3% of the world’s population, and two-thirds of Earth’s known oil reserves. “In fearful symmetry,” the United States consumes 25% of world oil production but has only 2% of reserves.  Suburban sprawl, rising vehicle miles traveled and other factors have pushed U.S. oil use up by 20% since the early 1980s. 

Komanoff presents several scenarios for immediate reductions in oil use that rely not on policy or technology changes, but on a changed public ethos that, with effective national leadership, would identify oil dependence as a threat worth confronting.  He cites the example of Californians cutting 5% of electricity use in response to a state educational campaign following the power shortages of 2000.Americans could save 5% of their oil consumption – over half of our imports from Saudi Arabia – if families eliminated one in fourteen car trips, reduce flying somewhat (a goal that had been met as of February), households and companies reduce heat levels in buildings 2 degrees and reduced electricity consumption 5%.He also develops a 10% savings scenario, and an appendix spells out seven policy measures needed to institutionalize voluntary conservation and multiply savings over time.  MTR readers will be familiar with most – they include higher fuel taxes that better reflect the costs of oil, per-mile auto insurance charges, land use reforms to remove impediments to in-fill and brownfield development, more investment in mass transit and an end to the fuel economy exemption for “light trucks.”

The Times noted that last fall, President Bush said that the U.S. had “glimpsed what a new culture of responsibility could look like.  We want to be a nation that serves goals larger than self.  We’ve been offered a unique opportunity, and we must not let this moment pass.” The paper asked, and answered: “What has Mr. Bush made of that moment of opportunity, which may have passed us by?Sad to say, not much.”   www.rightofway.org/research/newoilage.pdf

Bush Winging Transportation Policy (July 1, 2002)

“Ending the Oil Age” by Charles Komanoff

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