By Julianne LaJeunesse- University of New Mexico-Talk Radio News Service

House Energy and Commerce Committee members met with Department of Transportation Sec. Ray LaHood, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski, and transportation experts Wednesday, to discuss who- the federal government or states- would be responsible for ensuring drivers avoid text messaging, using cellular phones, and working GPS systems while on the road.

The committee members agreed that distracted driving is dangerous and should be regulated, and some committee members, such as Virgin Island’s Representative Donna Christensen (D-V.I.), even admitted to texting or using their cell phones while driving. However, when it came to the question of who should regulate the rules of the road, the committee split.

Rep. John Shimkus (R- Ill.) put it bluntly: “Distracted driving is bad,” he said. However, he added, “I have never been for the federal government extorting highway funds to obtain some means to an end that should be decided through the state.”

Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) also expressed questions about potentially changing laws, saying he urged his colleagues to create thoughtful, flexible, and “sound” policy.

“Although we share a justified measure of concern about the relationship between use of certain technological devices and driver safety, we have to guard against enthusiastically overly prescriptive statutes… that in the long term may stifle innovation and ultimately show them to be of marginal benefit to the cause of improving driver safety,” he said.

Other representatives, such as Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), said federally mandating laws that would reduce distracted driving may seem “weary,” but said Congress could consider federally mandating public education on distracted driving.

As of last month, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association, six states including California, New York, and Oregon, had banned nearly all cell phone use while driving, and 18 states had banned text messaging while driving.

By Laura Woodhead

Consumer protection groups urged the Department of Transportation (DOT) Thursday to investigate scams stemming from the Car Allowance Rebate System, commonly called Cash For Clunkers, in a letter sent to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.

According to the groups, some dealers are making customers sign liability waivers that will result in the consumer being held liable if the dealer is not given a rebate by the government, despite being accepted by the dealer as meeting all “Cash for Clunkers” standards. According to these contracts, the consumer would have to pay up the loss or risk losing their new car, even if their old car had already been crushed, said Joe Ridout, spokesman for Consumer Action during a conference call with reporters.

“We are troubled by this disturbing new trend,” said Ridout. “Frankly, we feel that dealers should be bending over backwards in gratitude to car buyers, who in their role as tax payers, provided this financial lifeline to dealerships.”

“The DOT should send a clear message that car buyers should in no way be liable,” he added. “Dealers have reaped the benefits of the program and should be made to play by its rules.”

The letter also called for an investigation into so called “double dipping,” in which dealers deliberately mislead the consumer into paying the “Cash for Clunkers” payment upfront under the promise they will receive the check for $4500 later, only to have the dealer take the money and later tell them that their car did not qualify.

“Some are taking advantage of consumers who are still confused about the program,” Ridout said. This puts consumers “at risk of being charged twice, once as a taxpayer footing the bill for this subsidy to assist car dealerships and the second time as a customer of a dealer known to double dip.”

Rosemary Shahan, President of Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, said that she understood the anxiety that was behind the contingency contracts, when many dealers were unsure of how long the program would last or if they would recieve a check. However, it should be them, not the consumer that carried the liability, Shahan said.

“A lot of them have gone out on a limb and entered into a lot of contracts on the promise the money is forthcoming and they are still waiting for the deals to be processed,” Shahan said. “The question is: should consumers take the risk when dealers know what they are getting into?”

“If the dealers decides, given all the unknowns, that they want to go ahead and offer these [Cash for Clunkers] contracts they should be assuming the risks and argue it out with the government,” she said.

In response to the letter, the DOT has placed a warning on the Cash for Clunkers website (www.cars.gov) telling customers that “consumers are not required to sign contingency agreements to pay back the dealer should the cars credit be rejected.”

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood says that Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) will help consumers buy and maintain vehicles, help dealerships sell cars during the economic downturn and improve the environment since consumers will ultimately be encouraged to buy more fuel efficient cars. (0:35)

 

 Standard Podcast [0:35m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

“We are eating the seed-corn of the investments we made in the 1960’s” in roads and other components of distribution infrastructure, says Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.).

Funding is the big issue, and it doesn’t help that congress traditionally divides the distribution into sector into pieces: rail, road, waterways, air, etc, as well as geographic divisions. What’s needed, he said, is greater “multimodal integration.”

All of the speakers at The Council on Competitiveness Seminar on “Is America’s Transportation Infrastructure Ready for Global Trade?” echoed that point over the course of their talks.

Four of America’s five major economic sectors depend on the fifth, transportation and distribution, which provides 11 million jobs. Domestic, internal, transport accounts for 85 percent of all commercial transport in the U.S. This “logistic structure” is valued at 10 percent of GDP, according to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and that’s the lowest in the world, meaning one of the most efficient.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the U.S. moves 50 million tons of goods per day, and our supply lines have helped America to remain competitive for 250 years, but now urban congestion and neglected infrastructure are compromising supply line efficiency.

“It’s about more than asphalt,” Warner said. “Supply is about moving goods, but it’s also about moving ideas.” Warner, whose business is telecommunication, advocates including broadband conduits into all new roads in order to extend the broadband infrastructure as inclusively and proactively as possible. “We’re still 15th in the world in terms of broadband environment,” he finished.

Council on Competitiveness President Deborah Wince-Smith extended the topic back to a global scale. “Sales from foreign affiliates of U.S. companies are three times total domestic sales,” she said, and therefore supply line efficiency is important to international competitiveness.

Douglas Oberhelman, Group President, Caterpillar, Said he sometimes can get shipments from Hong Kong faster than he can get them from an American port to their final destination within the U.S.

Overall the diverse group of speakers highlighted that global competitiveness requires:
1. Renovation and expansion of the infrastructure of roads and highways.
2. Smart distribution systems, in the form of information technology and associated technologies like RFID and sensors.
3. A return to education, science, and engineering as national values.
4. integrated, consistent, standardized, stable policies across modalities, regions, tax policy, energy policy and broadband information technology.

Topic: Democratic senators lay out plan for America

On Wednesday, January 21, 2009, the first full day of the new administration, Democratic senate leaders laid out their overarching agenda for at least the next two years.
Priorities were:
1. Economic recovery, which, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid means “jobs, jobs, jobs.” Senator Debbie Stabenow, who led the entire presentation, emphasized that each of the proposed programs should produce more recovery in jobs and return on investment than they cost.
Sens. Charles Schumer and Byron Dorgan discussed the economy. Schumer described sewage treatment and fresh water reclamation as examples of neglected infrastructure projects, which could create jobs and sustainability. He stated that Social Security is not in jeopardy, but that Medicare will require adjustments.
Both Senators said that energy programs will be major areas of investment, and Dorgan specifically said that expansion of the power grid was a priority. This would provide for the decentralization of power production and make distribution more robust.
Dorgan also specifically addressed the need to regulate practices, like derivatives, which encourage risk taking by lenders, as well as mortgages with “teaser” rates leading to balloon payments later.
While there was some inevitable finger pointing, the emphasis was on the need for bipartisan commitment.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar said that Obama has promised to personally review and approve proposed economic policies, and to improve transparency by posting financial data, such as expenditures, interest rates and returns on the web
2. Energy: Sen. Harry Reid stressed the need for oil independence, first from the need to import oil, which is a major cause of the imbalance of trade, but ultimately from domestic oil as well. He said this was a security issue as much as an environmental and economic one.
Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Jeff Bingaman answered question on energy policy. Bingaman supports a cap and trade policy for carbon units, with a need to simplify the details, and to cap the level to which fees for allowances can rise as oil prices fluctuate. He noted that even oil produced by American companies is generally imported. He declined to give a timetable for addressing climate change, reminding the press that it is not possible to address every important issue simultaneously. Bingaman did say that Sen. Henry Waxman plans to submit an energy bill by Memorial Day.
Klobuchar said, with confirmation of Ray LaHood as Secretary of Transportation and Commerce, the United States would be in a position to be leaders again at the Copenhagen conference on climate change, the successor to the Kyoto conferences. Referring to cap and trade policy, she said it is important not to ratify historic carbon emissions, but also not to punish companies that have alreadybeen working to bring emissions down.
3. Healthcare: Sens. Ron Wyman and Debbie Stabenow presented. Stabenow said that Obama will immediately lift bans on stem cell research, and that expanded SCHIP coverage, including mental health and dental care, will pass within the next two weeks. She noted that “community mental health” had become, for some, code for reduced federal funding on mental health programs. She confirmed that universal coverage includes mental as well as physical illness. As a strategy to address the critical shortage of nurses, she proposed forgiving student loans upon completion of training.
Stabenow also said that medical information technology is an important investment for better and more efficient health care.
Regarding the economic impact of expanding health coverage, she said Canada remains competitive partly because its businesses do not have to bear the costs of employee health insurance. The big question, Stabenow said, is maintaining choice for patients.
Wyman said that for progressives “the story of universal health care is one of unrequited love.” There have been several occasions in the past when comprehensive reform appeared likely, but powerful interest groups or intervening crises prevented its passage. This time, things look better in that former foes have become allies as industry tries to divest itself of the cost and responsibility of health care. Sen. Tom Daschle, who has devoted much of his career to this issue, will become Secretary of Health and Human Services. Sens. Kennedy, Daschle, Stabenow, and Wyman have worked to make the legislation more transparent and streamlined than last time, Wyman said,and the public is likely to choose the health plan that congress uses.
Sen. Harry Reid told the press this is an aggressive congress with the political tools and capital to get much of the desired legislation passed, noting that they just passed 164 environmental bills, which would have been impossible, just a short time ago.