The Oil Drum

I was a little more sucessful (just barely) in that I got a reply back from my congressman, Zack Wamp, explaining why he was voting for the Republican version of the Energy Bill and not the more restrictive Democratic Bill. He is Chairman of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus but is a very pro-busniness, pro-development person who thinks that environmentalists are crazy. Since Rep. Wamp views environmentalists as being basically Luddites, I always try to have a positive alternative to present for any highway/development project that I oppose. Usually this is a rail alternative.
That being said, at the state level we have a very progressive Democrat(Bredeson) as governor, so I have a little more hope there. Recently a nice lady from Nashville who is now in charge of the Multimodal Transportation Resources branch of TDOT showed up at a public meeting for a specific highway proposal in which I was interested. TDOT is just beginning to look at integrating rail planning into the state transportation plan. She admitted that in the past they have only been concerned with roads, but that is changing. They had a series of public meetings in 2002 which I did not know about at the time (possibly because there was not one in Chattanooga) and had overwhelming support(PDF) for the state involvement in rail transportation. I hope it is not too little too late.