Tag: politics: Page 6

Business

Corporate tax code reforms have early bi-partisan support as method for funding long-term highway bill this year

After President Barack Obama made a brief mention of infrastructure funding in his State of the Union address last week, urging Congress to focus on that rather than the Keystone XL pipeline, Vice President Joe Biden has now made his own appeal to lawmakers to fund a long-term highway bill this year. According to a […]

January 26, 2015

Business

Obama urges Congress to focus on improving infrastructure rather than Keystone XL in State of the Union

President Barack Obama in his sixth State of the Union address made little mention of issues related directly to construction and transportation, which has in years past come in the form of the president pushing Congress to do more to fund highways and other transportation infrastructure. Unlike recent years, however, the president only briefly addressed transportation infrastructure […]

January 21, 2015

Business

More reasons not to build toll roads

As a follow up to my earlier post on the Texas SH 130 toll road, I wanted to elaborate on another reason why I think toll roads are a bad idea: elitism. Tolls for me, free for thee Most of the sophisticated toll systems today photograph your license plate or read an RFID transponder in […]

January 19, 2015

Business

A drive on a Texas high-speed toll road: Is this how everybody will drive in the future? I hope not.

Over the holidays I had the opportunity to travel south on the newest Texas toll road, otherwise known as State Highway 130. The 131-mile road was built to ease Austin’s crushing traffic burdens, particularly along Interstate 35, but controversy has dogged the project since the road opened. The financing for SH 130 has always been […]

January 8, 2015

Business

Will the plunge in crude oil prices kill the fracking boom?

For the last few years the conventional wisdom has been that fracking and oil and gas extraction in shale will continue to be profitable as long as crude oil prices remain above $70 a barrel. Below that point, middle eastern crude, which can be pumped out of the ground for less than $20 a barrel […]

December 23, 2014

Business

Contractors, construction equipment manufacturers have much to gain from restoration of trade with Cuba

Though the restoration of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba has a long way to go, construction is firmly planted among the industries with the most to gain from the reversal of the half-century-old political stalemate announced by President Barack Obama last week. On Wednesday, Obama announced that he was ordering a full restoration […]

December 22, 2014

Business

Congress passes $1.1 trillion spending bill; cuts $5 billion from federal construction accounts

Two days after the legislation was passed by a tight vote in the House, the Senate passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill Saturday night that includes both good and bad news for federal construction accounts in 2015. The bill keeps the government funded through September, when the fiscal year ends. The Senate passed the spending […]

December 15, 2014

Business

Alabama has no plans to raise gas tax; state will rely on next year’s bond issue for road projects

Gov. Robert Bentley says he has no plans to ask the Alabama legislature to raise the state’s 16-cent-per-gallon gas tax, responding to emailed questions submitted by The Tuscaloosa News. Instead, Alabama instead will look to a $508.5 million highway bond issue to finance highway projects, bonds that last week received a AAA rating from Standard […]

December 15, 2014

Workforce

Obama unveils immigration reform shielding 5 million from deportation; challenges Congress to “pass a bill”

During a defiant speech from the East Room of the White House Thursday night, President Barack Obama unveiled sweeping immigration reforms that would shield nearly 5 million undocumented immigrants from deportation and make it easier for highly-skilled immigrants to work here. There are currently 11 million undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. and an estimated […]

November 21, 2014

Business

AGC economist forecasts strong construction growth thanks to ‘shale gale’, Panama Canal expansion

The morning after Republicans won back the U.S. Senate, Ken Simonson, chief economist for the Associated General Contractors of America, said that conservative majorities in both houses of Congress are unlikely to spend money to improve the the country’s infrastructure, but that private construction will be robust. The keynote speaker Wednesday at the 2014 Association […]

November 6, 2014

Business

Former DOT Sec. LaHood: “We need a big pot of money” to fix America’s roads and bridges

Continuing his “America is one big pothole” theme, former U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood used an appearance at a Caterpillar press event Wednesday night to lambast the present direction of U.S. transportation policy. Calling the 2-year transportation bill passed in 2012 “chintzy,” LaHood called upon Congress to think as roads as economic corridors. […]

October 30, 2014

Business

Construction critical to growth of unconventional energy market

Construction is a key player throughout the “unconventional” oil and gas supply chain, according to a just-released study by the Energy Equipment Infrastructure Alliance, and conducted by IHS Global Insight. The industry is one of five critical economic sectors when it comes to the unconventional energy market, defined as oil and gas extracted by horizontal […]

October 1, 2014