Smith College Astronomy Professor James Lowenthal granted me permission to relay his notes from Stan Rosenberg’s Hampshire-Franklin County Municipal Conference held April 7 at the Clarion Hotel and Conference Center, Atwood Drive, Northampton. Thanks James, for saving me some time!-Daryl
Dr. James Lowenthal
Briefly, some high points:
* US Rep. John Olver’s keynote speech:
– mentioned "peak oil" 3 times, including the protesters outside;
– referred to the incalculable cost of the war for oil in Iraq;
– mentioned our "addiction to oil";
– referred several times to "experts who think very hard about the
– future and what it will be like," and what they are telling him
and other reps;
– highway trust fund (from gas tax) will go from black to red before
2009, but little hope of raising gas tax, given anti-tax Bush
– gave many statistics on cuts, e.g. Amtrak down $400M (almost half its
annual budget, vs. >$50B/yr for highways)
– talked at length about the growth of sprawl, the link to
transportation, the difficulty of retrofitting sprawl with transit;
– also talked at length about the current debacle in $ for housing,
growing social inequity, etc.
Note that Olver is CHAIR of the Subcommittee on Transportation,
Housing and Urban Development of the House Appropriations Committee.
I thanked him briefly after the speech for the peak oil comments, but
didn’t think quickly enough to ask him directly why he is supporting
the Exit 19 expansion study. I did mention it to his two aides
later, though, and they were present for the. * Transportation
breakout session.
Bernard Cohen, Secretary, Executive Office of Transportation
Senator Steve Badour, Chair, Transportation Committee
Luis Paiewonsky, Commissioner, MassHighway
Al Stegemann, Director, MassHighway District 2
Peter Niles, Director, Mass Highway District 1
(Two panelists not shown)
Each gave a brief hello/intro; Paiewonsky said directly that she
supports all modes of transportation.; wants crashes down 20% in 20 yrs;
emphasizes importance of interstate system, with 2% of lane miles but
>1/3 of travel; said she was part of the CT River Crossing SAG; promises
that project will adhere to new, better guidelines, will be regional
process with lots of public input.
Then questions were taken from the audience of ca. 50. Marilyn
Richards read all the points in the No Exit 19 flyer and asked for
clarification.
process had in fact been open to the public, and that there continued
to be lots of opportunity for public input, and that the project was in only
the early stages.
I thanked the Comm. for including MassBike as a stakeholder in the
new Guideline writing, then presented myself as a scientist worried
about global warming and peak oil (courage provided by sign-holders
outside, Olver’s remarks earlier, and recent US Supreme Court ruling
in MA vs. US EPA!) and asked how expanding highways (-more cars more
CO2, not less) such as Exit 19 could possibly be good public policy,
and how EOT and MHD were going to address that disconnect, and a more
local one: the Transportation and Parking Commission, never weighed in on the
project, nor was it invited to; also, no one in the Northampton planning
process (Vision 2020, Sustainable Northampton, etc.) ever calls for expanding
I91/19 — people call for more bike/ped/transit.
Secretary Cohen replied that the problem lies in the local towns that
allow sprawl development, then ask EOT to fix their traffic. After the
session, I followed up by pointing out that expanding capacity also
leads to new sprawl development, so it’s two-way. He admitted that "yes,
we do have a responsibility"
Other questions ranged from pro-
transit to pro-bike/ped to anti-environmental regs.
Daryl LaFleur asked "why no EIR"; Sen. Badour immediately said "there
was no funny business, no politics…but I don’t know anything about
the project at all." Commissioner Paiewonsky added that there will be many public
meetings on the project before 25% stage; it will not "just sail
through"
Session was followed by lunch, followed by…
Speech by Deval Patrick.
Patrick explicitly mentioned support for transit and the Greenhouse Gas
Initiative he’d just signed. Otherwise no other transportation mention that
I can recall. I asked him in person afterwards how he would balance
need to reduce oil use and emissions from cars vs. stated need for
economic growth; he again mentioned public transit, specifically
support for commuter rail from Hartford to Springfield (eventually
Northampton).
All in all, I found it highly useful and was very glad to be able to meet the pols and make the pitch for sensible transportation/energy policy.
James Lowenthal
