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Media CBD Courier in the News

GLI's recently formed Transportation Committee has met four times. In the second meeting there was much discussion of: 1) the Mayor's new question: "how do we move people, not cars?"; 2) the need for more public transit (decreasing commuter traffic while increasing freight capacity on interstates); 3) future fuel costs; and 4) the uncertainty of future fuel supplies/sources. This turn was apparently not welcomed by GLI, for in the third meeting a GLI employee told the group to focus on: 1) the bridges ("under construction for the next twenty years"); 2) the airport expansion; and 3) getting a larger share of transportation funding from Frankfort. After listening to forty minutes discussion of these three mandates, it was pointed out that the two elephants in the room (the Mayor's transit question and fuel volatility) were not being addressed by GLI. An attempt was made to brush off fuel volatility by praising Indiana's ethanol efforts, a note was made to address the public transit question, and the meeting adjourned. The fourth meeting widened the focus beyond the airport expansion and getting transportation funding from Frankfort, to include TARC.

Fuel went unaddressed again. Transportation cannot be discussed without discussing fuel - excepting pedestrians and cyclists. GLI promotes building two major energy intensive transportation investments "for the next twenty years" without reasonable estimates of fuel costs in 2026. It may not be reasonable to assume the availability of plentiful fuel supplies at any cost in 2026. Yet the institution entrusted with shepherding our local economy pushes ahead with projects we will live with for many years beyond 2026.

Fuel alternatives to petroleum are not on the horizon at costs and quantities supporting our current consumption. Large scale ethanol and biodiesel deplete the fertility of the soil our children are depending on for their future food and, as put by the Wall Street Journal 30 June 2006, "the effort to make ... ethanol into a full-blown power source ... is embryonic, and its outcome uncertain." Cute little electric vehicles are mountain top removing, mercury releasing, acid rain inducing, miner killing, global warming, coal-fired vehicles. Nuclear power is an exchange of one polution for another. None are a solution.

Conservation and accompanying changes in lifestyle and the way we do business are our best solution. As a local economy that produces no energy, every dollar we spend on fuel leaves our local economy. The long term health of our local economy (and so much more) is at stake. Local businesses and citizens should demand of GLI (and of elected political leadership) a realistic, long term evaluation of energy before committing one more dollar to long term transportation systems. In the meantime, businesses, households and individuals need to take conservation measures of their own. We must lead our leaders.

Jackie Green J@bikecourier.org

Contact the writer at j@bikecourier.org