Wednesday’s Headlines Are Drilling, Baby, Drill!

Image: Paul Lowry, CC
Image: Paul Lowry, CC
  • The U.S. is already producing record amounts of crude oil, but Republicans want to drill even more. (Roll Call)
  • It will surprise no one who’s been on Twitter lately that Elon Musk is single-handedly responsible for the problems with Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving” technology. (Washington Post)
  • The cost of lithium — a key component of EV batteries — is falling, but no one knows for how long. (New York Times)
  • Sure, a lot of drivers think they can break the law with impunity, but hundreds of thousands of “sovereign citizens” literally think the law doesn’t apply to them. (Jalopnik)
  • An obscure 1920 maritime law is clogging up U.S. roads with trucks filled with goods that could be transported more efficiently by water. (The Atlantic)
  • If you don’t mind paying the $2,000 gas-guzzler tax, you can buy this $100,000 Dodge with a 1,000-horsepower engine. (Car and Driver)
  • Vice dubs the recently deceased King of Prussia rail line in Philadelphia the second-worst transit project in the U.S., behind the much-maligned LaGuardia plane train.
  • Some good news on the ridership front: The D.C. Metro is ramping up train service as numbers continue to break post-pandemic records. (DCist)
  • Arizona legislators are meddling with Phoenix’s transit expansion plans because they know they would lose at the ballot box. (Republic)
  • Deploying social workers on the Twin Cities’ transit system would be a challenge because it overlaps with so many jurisdictions. (MinnPost)
  • Tennessee’s $3 billion transportation plan mostly consists of new highway lanes. (Tennessean)
  • The Hampton Roads region of Virginia is continuing to explore light rail. (WTKR)
  • Remember Shit My Dad Says? Here are Things Mountain Bikers Say. (Bike Mag)

ALSO ON STREETSBLOG

Political Jockeying Over Gas Prices Is Divorced From Reality

|
Though many transportation reformers, economists and environmentalists would say that gas prices aren’t nearly high enough to disincentivize single-occupancy-vehicle use and to pay for the external harms, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill take it for granted that gas prices are too damn high. In fact, it’s one of the very, very few things that they do agree on these […]

Even Some Republicans Don’t Like the House GOP’s Oil Drilling Plan

|
Remember how NRDC’s Deron Lovaas said the new transportation bill proposed by House Republicans is “a march of horribles“? Well, he wasn’t exaggerating. This bill, which attempts to make up for the country’s stagnant gas tax by squeezing revenue from domestic oil drilling, takes the concept of sustainability (environmental, fiscal and otherwise) and strives to […]

“Drill Baby Drill” Won’t Solve America’s Energy Problems

|
House Republicans are calling for offshore oil drilling as an answer to foreign oil dependency and high gas prices — and they’re not the only ones. President Obama recently announced his intention to cut oil imports by one-third by 2025, partly by increasing domestic production was the answer to the country’s energy woes. In his speech announcing […]