Stories tagged with "washington"

Asking for NYC's $24 Billion Refund

Posted by Glenn on April 30, 2006 - 4:28pm in The Oil Drum: Local
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: albany, budget, federal, new york city, oil, peak oil, state, washington [list all tags]

There's a perception that NYC acts as a leech on the rest of the country and state. I'm not sure where this perception comes from. Maybe they think that we just provide too many expensive social services to an enormous load of welfare cases. I'm not sure why people believe this, but it is simply wrong. In fact it is NYC that provides an enormous surplus to both Albany ($13 Billion) and Washington ($11 Billion) (Gotham Gazette). And that's not including the money that we send to the state and Federal Governments or authorities like the MTA or Port Authority that ends up getting spent on projects that do not align with our local priorities because they are approved without much local input.

If we do try to relocalize our energy, food, transportation, democracy, etc in NYC we will need to rectify these imbalances to make sure that the urban core does not continue to subsidize the suburban and exurban lifestyle.

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Gas tax increases are not a panacea...

Posted by Prof. Goose on October 30, 2005 - 1:11pm
Topic: Policy/Politics
Tags: gas tax, oil, peak oil, washington [list all tags]

In our discussions of raising gas taxes for green purposes (demand destruction and R&D&I for other energy sources, namely, but there are other potential green policy outputs that have been discussed), people initially love the idea.  

However, the usual (and thusly validated below in a reader's question about a WA gas tax initiative) retort is that government will just use the increased revenues for purposes counter to the green agenda.

Reader Derek D. writes to the TOD mailbox:

I was wondering if you would consider a post to discuss the pros and cons of a gas tax initiative on the Washington state ballot, to be decided this coming Election Day.
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Solar House competition

Posted by Heading Out on October 13, 2005 - 11:32am
Topic: Alternative energy
Tags: alternative energy, solar house, washington [list all tags]

For those who missed seeing this on the news (grin) there is a student competition on the Mall in Washington D.C. this week.  Some 18 colleges have brought houses to the Mall and re-erected them for the competition.  Not only must the solar panels power the house (including fridge, hot water, air conditioning etc) but it must also power an electric car.  One might say it is a little more immediately practical than the solar car race that DOE also sponsors.  

At present Colorado appears to be winning the competition.  I won't get there until Sunday (for another meeting) so will miss seeing them before they are disassembled, but for those who have the chance, it may give you the ability to see what sort of a lifestyle we may have to adapt to in the not-to-distant future.  And, to be honest, apart from being a little cramped it is not all that bad. But go and judge for yourself.  ("Cos, since we are not winning, ol' grump here thinks they may be scoring aesthetics a bit too high, relative to efficiency).

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