Adopt energy efficiency standards that reduce energy demand economy-wide by 50% over the next 20--30 years. The U.S. can make massive reductions in its energy use through a combination of conservation and efficiency measures. We don't actually need any additional power. Instead, we can and should reduce our consumption of power. Adopt a national zero waste policy. The less we consume and throw away, the less we will need to produce and replace.
BIDEN: I think we should, depending on what it is they're exporting for what they're replacing. Everything is incremental. For example, about transportation. I've been pushing really hard for mass transit and for rail. We can take millions of vehicles off the road if we had high-speed rail. I've been a champion of that for the last 25 years. We know the corridors where we could do that. It would literally take millions of vehicles off the road. But you have to have a rail system that makes people say, "if I get on that rail, I will get there as fast as I would have gotten had I driven and I can afford to do it relative to the cost of my driving." There's a direct correlation. This is something I spent the bulk of my career on, trying to save Amtrak and other things like transportation. But my point is, we can begin to change the arc in a significant way, [by] investing in the science and the technology and the changes that are available.
Our transportation program will enable the restructuring cities and towns into walkable communities centered around the hubs and spokes of these electrified rail systems.
America's middle class was built through investments in education, infrastructure, and research--and by making sure we all have a safety net. We need to strengthen those building blocks: Upgrade infrastructure--mass transit, energy, communications--to make it more attractive to build good, middle-class jobs here in America.
"If we don't act now, when?" Bloomberg asked, making his announcement on Earth Day.
Most chief executives do not spend much time planning for the future, when they will no longer be in office to claim credit. That's why bridges fall down--from neglect by politicians worried about their today, not a successor's tomorrow.
But PlaNYC's 127 projects, regulations and innovations--an agenda so ambitious that Bloomberg likened it to the designs for Central Park and the construction of Rockefeller Center--rely heavily on political cooperation, public funds and a strong economy.
Because of this plan, there are teachers who can now keep their jobs and educate our kids. Health care professionals can continue caring for our sick.
Because of this plan, 95 percent of working households in America will receive a tax cut--a tax cut that you will see in your paychecks beginning on April 1st.
Because of this plan, families who are struggling to pay tuition costs will receive a $2,500 tax credit for all four years of college. And Americans who have lost their jobs in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage to help them weather this storm.
But Obama's numbers are not certain. The estimate of 3.5 million jobs is backed up by projections from different economists, but others downgraded his job estimate to 2.2 million once the stimulus legislation was finalized. It's worth noting that even Nobel-winning economists disagree sharply about macroeconomic projections. That's because macroeconomics is still a relatively new discipline. There is limited data, and even less agreement about what the available data actually mean.
I pushed for light rail because I saw it as playing an important role in the future. I went to Denver to study their light-rail system. It's the old wagon wheel concept; all the spokes lead to the city center, and those are your trains. The busses connect to the trains.
[For the Twin Cities], the idea was that the system would run for 11.5 miles, connecting the Mall of America to the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport to downtown. I found out that 60% of the people who live [along the route] can't afford to own a car. They'd now have the ability to get downtown or to the mall, and find at least an entry-level job.
I took abuse from talk radio show hosts who called the light rail plan "the big boondoggle" or "the train to nowhere." Their notion was, we have our cars, MN doesn't need mass transit.
A: We have to make investments in infrastructure. This will create jobs, not only if we once again focus on our bridges, our tunnels, our ports, our airports, our mass transit--it will put millions of people to work--but it is also part of homeland security. We need to have a better infrastructure in order to protect us. And it’s not only the physical infrastructure, it is the virtual infrastructure, like a national broadband system that our police and firefighters can actually access and use to be safe. So I think that we’ve got to look at this, with the disaster that we see, from the levees of New Orleans to the bridge in Minneapolis to what happened to us in New York City on 9/11, as the highest priority, and it will be at the top of my list when I’m president.
I understand the hesitation about charging a fee. I was a skeptic myself. But I looked at the facts: in cities like London and Singapore, fees succeeded in reducing congestion and improving air quality.
In setting the fee, there’s no magic number, but it has to be high enough to encourage more people to switch to mass transit and low enough not to break the bank - for businesses and for those who have to drive. We believe that an $8 charge would achieve these goals, for cars traveling south of 86th Street on weekdays.
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