Tanya Snyder

You may have heard last week that a former Shell executive predicted that gas prices would reach five dollars a gallon by the end of next year. John Hofmeister is now the head of Citizens for Affordable Energy, which advocates for increased coal, gas, and oil production in the U.S. He’s also the author of a book called “Why We Hate the Oil Companies: Straight Talk from an Energy Insider.”

The new Congress has been sworn in and John Boehner has been elected Speaker of the House, 241-173. Nancy Pelosi has handed him the (strangely over-sized) gavel and he just took the oath of office. In his acceptance speech, he stressed fiscal discipline and spending cuts.

Slate has posted this map to illustrate the concentration of "food deserts," where large numbers of people don't have access to fresh food. The USDA considers households more than a mile from a supermarket and without access to a car to be in food deserts, often with only convenience-store junk food for nourishment. In 2009, the agency found 2.3 million of these households. Here, Slate shows the preponderance of those households in Appalachia and the Deep South, and on Indian reservations.

You’ve heard it a thousand times from the highway lobby: Roads pay for themselves through "user fees" -- a.k.a. gas taxes and tolls -- whereas transit is a drain on the taxpayer. They use this argument to push for new roads, instead of transit, as fiscally prudent investments.

Transportation advocates, from both the highway and transit lobbies, are up in arms about a proposed change to House rules governing transportation spending. It would jeopardize dedicated transportation funds by changing the rule requiring that a certain level of highway trust fund money be spent each year. According to a letter [PDF] sent to House leadership last week by 21 organizations including AASHTO, APTA, and the Chamber of Commerce:

A few weeks ago, members of the House threw up their hands and voted for a year-long extension of the 2010 budget. It included an extension of the transportation reauthorization. The Senate didn't vote on it in time, so then the House voted for a three-day extension to give the Senate a few more days after the current extension expired.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood published an op-ed in the Sunday edition of the Orlando Sentinel, arguing for a vigorous campaign of high speed rail building. He said, “If we work together, a national high-speed-rail network can and will be our generation's legacy.”

Update: We just learned that Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) has been confirmed as the new Ranking Member of the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.

Sixty-five elected officials representing a number of California cities are urging California Senator Barbara Boxer to push a new federal transportation bill that reforms spending and puts a focus on public transit, walking and biking, or "21st century needs." Boxer, as chair of the Senate Committee on the Environment and Public Works, could play a key role in the long-term re-authorization of the federal surface transportation act.

(Editor's note: For more on the extension of the tax benefit for transit riders, read this story from Capitol Hill Streetsblog that I neglected to syndicate to. - DN)