Historians will eventually judge President Trump's inaugural address, but we couldn't help notice a few references to some cherished livable streets issues in the 47th president's speech.
First and foremost, he declared that the massive increase in oil drilling that took place under President Biden wasn't enough to slake his thirst for crude.
"Today," the president said about 10 minutes into his term. "I will also declare a national energy emergency. We will drill, baby, drill. ... We have something that no other manufacturing nation will ever have, the largest amount of oil and gas of any country on Earth and we are going to use it. ... We will be a rich nation again and it is that liquid gold under our feet that will help to do it." (Studies show that green energy would be better for our long-term economic prospects, but I suppose we'll be saying that for the next 1,460 days.)
Later in the day, Trump announced he would, again, pull the United States from the Paris climate accord. And he basically banned new wind farms to generate clean energy, the Post reported.
During his speech, he also knocked down several GOP straw men — two in this section:
"We will end the Green New Deal and we will revoke the electric vehicle mandate. ... In other words, you’ll be able to buy the car of your choice."
There is no "Green New Deal," though there are obviously policies seeking to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and to reduce emissions from the agricultural sector. And the notion that Americans can't buy whatever car they want is specious. (The Biden Administration did pass a pollution rule that requires the auto industry to ensure that 56 percent of new vehicle sales are electric by 2032, though 29 percent of sales could still be traditional combustion engine vehicles.)
The Post, of course, used the term "EV mandate" in its headline, but, of course, didn't mention it in the story (because it doesn't exist; you can buy any car you want!).
We'll be covering all of President Trump's initiatives over the next four years at Streetsblog USA. Read it early and often.
In other news:
- Speaking of nothing in particular except the weather, hell froze over. (NYDN)
- And Mayor Adams ignored Martin Luther King Jr. Day to be at the president's inauguration. (NY Post, NY Times, amNY, Gothamist)
- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy wasn't there, but he still whined to Trump about congestion pricing, the Post and Times reported. On the other hand, we have no problem if Murphy wants to pay companies to let workers work from home in the Garden State. (NY Post)
- Our governor is just as infuriating as Jersey's. According to the Post, Gov. Hochul is "highly unlikely" to offer her plan for funding the MTA capital plan on Tuesday, when she's expected to unveil her budget — you know, the document where you're supposed to do the budgeting thing.
- An interesting story that you might have missed was in Bloomberg late last week. Using the media outlet's Midtown tower as a viewing stand, reporters and data analysts were able to see that the traffic reductions in the congestion relief zone were largely due to a reduction in personal vehicles. Meanwhile, yellow cab rides increased, debunking fears that congestion pricing would hurt taxi drivers. Now, Bloomberg's car-price-ownership analysis doesn't by itself dispel the canard that congestion pricing is a regressive tax. But it does show that "working" drivers value their time savings as much as rich drivers do, as Komanoff pointed out:
- The Toronto Globe and Mail also approves of congestion pricing.
- The Post has a huge problem with fare evasion ... but not toll evasion for some reason.
- And the paper is still reading every soggy tea leaf for evidence that New Yorkers hate the subway.
- Whaddya know? Cops working for disgraced former Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey's disabled tracking devices on their NYPD-issued cars. (NY Post)
- Meanwhile, the MTA's disabled driver exemption portal is too confusing, advocates say. (SI Advance)
- Leave the repo man alone! (NYDN)
