House Committee discusses investing in infrastructure and transportation to boost economy

The House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure discussed how funding for transportation and infrastructure might stimulate the economy.

Infrastructure investments create benefits that radiate throughout the economy, said Chairman James Oberstar (D-Minn.). The committee pointed out that transportation and infrastructure projects create thousands of jobs domestically and also immediate benefit small businesses, local and state governments.

We have several public transit projects that are “ready-to-go,” said Congressman John Mica (R-Fla.). The discussion centered on creating a stimulus package to fund transportation projects around the country that would begin construction in 90 to 120 days.

John Irons, research and policy director of the Economic Policy Institute, testified that “the investments would go...beyond the construction industry, they would impact a wide range of industries across the country and across industries.”

How to drive less: you can't afford the gas

People are driving like a bunch of idiots, and they're driving a million miles an hour. That was the statement of Representative Don Young (R-AK), at the House Subcommittee Transportation and Infrastructure hearing on "Rising Diesel Fuel Costs in the Trucking Industry." His overall sentiment was the United States can never drill the way into total independence, but we can drill our way into more stability. However, Young said, it doesn’t solve the problem. He said that all Congress was doing was sitting around and talking, while we're misusing the fossil fuels we have left. Congress, Young said as he stabbed his finger into the air, needs to stop pandering to the general public because they're not looking at solutions. He said he had a solution to make people change their driving habits: he's going to promote a tax of one dollar on every gallon of gasoline.

The overall message of the hearing is that supplies need to increase, and demands need to change. It’s nice when people are talking about windmills, John Mica (R-FL) said, but we need a long term and short term policy to help this issue. The short term policy: you don’t need to be a Harvard PhD to figure out that we need a short term increase in supply. To do that, we’ll need to tap some of our domestic resources. At some point, Mica said, people are going to say “we’ve got to do something about these costs,” and the only solution is to increase our supply. The people demanding change are going to end up right outside the building, voicing their concerns.

Mr. Tyson Slocum, Director, Public Citizen’s Energy Program, said there are some areas that remain immune, such as the financial companies. There are several variables the influence supply and demand, but there is no question that Congress can take steps to provide relief. Everyone talks about oil industry profits, he said, but in addition, by far the oil companies largest expenditure was buying back their own stock. Comparatively low expenditures were on providing consumers with long term relief, such as exploration.

The "Enron loophole," as it is reffered to, was brought up repeatedly and eventually Chairman Peter DeFazio (D-OR) expressed an interest in regulating the market. Can we do away with the Enron loophole, he asked, adding that speculation seemed a likely culprit in the high costs of gas and diesel prices. He suggested taking the excess costs from the CEO's pensions.