Category: Infrastructure
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Holy, Moly! Private-Sector Passenger Rail in Va.?
While the McDonnell administration seeks funding to extend Amtrak passenger service in Virginia, Hampton Roads planners are pushing European-style high-speed rail from Norfolk to Richmond and Washington — financed largely by the private sector. by James A. Bacon There’s an inherent difficulty in getting High Speed Rail to Virginia. Amtrak leases its rail lines from…
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Taxpayers against the Bypass
In a new report, “Sliding Past Sequestration,” Taxpayers for Common Sense have outlined a program to cut $2 trillion in federal spending over the next 10 years without touching entitlements. Among the many ideas are proposals to delete low Return on Investment transportation projects. Along with the likes of the Upper Mississippi River Navigation Locks…
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A Coal-Fired Power Plant Shuts Down
By Peter Galuszka For Northern Virginians who love the Potomac River, sailing out of the Washington Sailing Marina just south of Reagan National Airport is a special treat. From little boats, sails flapping in the wind, they can see the broad sweep of the D.C. and Alexandria waterfront: the Jefferson Memorial, Memorial Bridge , Hains…
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Out of Money, Out of Ideas
by James A. Bacon I have come to a reluctant conclusion: Virginia’s business leaders are intellectually bankrupt when it comes to solving the most pressing public policy issues facing Virginia. They have nothing to contribute beyond the same tired nostrums that have proven unworkable for a decade or more. Nowhere is this lassitude of mind…
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The Tax of Inaction
by James A. Bacon The message came through loud and clear at a transportation conference hosted yesterday by Chambers of Commerce from Hampton Roads, Richmond and Fairfax County: Virginia needs more roads for transportation. What no one appears to have resolved yet is how to pay for those improvements or how to prioritize the spending.…
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Thinking Big: a “Park in the Sky” over the James River
Two weeks ago Ella Kelley and Mike Hughes ran a brief op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighting their idea for building a “park in the sky” across the James River. Inspired by the success of New York City’s High Line bridge project (pictured above), which converted a 1.45-mile stretch of railroad line slated for demolition…
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Short Lines Draw the Short Stick
by James A. Bacon Pity Virginia’s short-line railroads. There are nine of them, they serve 150 industrial customers and they operate 500 miles of track, hauling products from peanuts and lumber to stone and steel. But they are no match for the big hogs on the farm when it comes to grubbing for state and…
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A Small Victory for Virginia in the Space Race
Awesome! The Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (VCSFA) has inked a deal with Dulles-based Orbital Sciences Corporation under which the state of Virginia will fund completion of improvements to the Wallops Island space-launch facility and Orbital will launch 10 Antares rocket missions from it. The rocket launches include one test flight, one demonstration flight and…
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Sen. Stanley Now Says Uranium “Call” Was His Idea Alone
By Peter Galuszka State Sen. Bill Stanley has told a Southside newspaper that he “misspoke” when he brought up the name of Gov. Robert F. McDonnell during his Aug. 31 telephone call that was taped recorded by Pittsylvania County Supervisor Jerry A. Hagerman. Stanley admitted that he “misspoke” when he told Hagerman that McDonnell had…
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Questions Surround Bizarre Telephone Call on Uranium Mining Resolution
By Peter Galuszka Many questions surround the bizarre situation in which a Pittsylvania County supervisor taped and caught in an apparent lie prominent Republican State Sen. Bill Stanley who made a late night call to urge that a resolution involving uranium mining be shelved. It raises questions about the integrity of Stanley, who is one…
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Taped Senator’s Call Links McDonnell to Uranium Mining Controversy
By Peter Galuszka Jerry A. Hagerman, a supervisor in Pittsylvania County which is at the center of a battle over proposed uranium mining, says that State Sen. Bill Stanley (pictured) told him that Gov. Robert F. McDonnell asked Stanley to lobby the county Board of Supervisors to shelve a resolution regarding uranium at its Sept.…
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Don’t Mess with Down Home
By Peter Galuszka Steamy and sticky in the late-summer humidity, U.S. 460 between Petersburg and Suffolk has the milieu of the Deep South with its rusting peanut processing plants, red brick small towns and the straight-as-an-arrow mainline of the Norfolk Southern slicing through occasional roads with warning lights at the sides. These days, curious little roadside…
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Two Unsatisying Conventions
By Peter Galuszka Thankfully, we’re done with two underwhelming, policy-idea-deficient political conventions that, save for a couple of speeches, offer limited hope for the November election from either party. The best part of the Democrat-confab at Charlotte was Bill Clinton’s rousing speech, as well as Michelle Obama’s class-act performance, but they gave Barrack Obama a…
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The Madness of Building in Flood-Prone Areas
My skepticism of Global Warming alarmism is well documented on this blog. But being skeptical of chicken-little, the-world-is-going-to-end hysteria is very different from being skeptical of the fact that global temperatures are rising and so is the sea level along with it. We can argue how rapidly sea levels are rising but not the fact…
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The Virginia-Maryland Border War
by James A. Bacon The fiercest rivalry in American politics today may not be between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney, suggests Stephen Moore in today’s Wall Street Journal. It may be between the governors of Maryland and Virginia: Martin O’Malley and Bob McDonnell. Not only do the two governors and their states vie for bragging…