All About Missouri This Week

Bill Prefiled to Ban Texting and Driving

Missouri State Senator David Pearce has prefiled a bill that would prohibit the use by all drivers of hand-held mobile phones to send, read or write text messages. Find out more here.

Gubernatorial Candidates Discuss Tranportation Funding (Just a Little)

So far, Missouri’s candidates for governor have provide few details about how the state will pay to maintain roads. Missouri is 7^th among the states in the size of its transportation system, but 47^th in state funding.

Candidate Catherine Hanaway suggested that the $200 million annually in state fuel tax revenues that is used to fund the Highway Patrol could be committed to transportation. The Highway Patrol would be funded from general revenue, though Hanaway’s plan does not provide specifics about how other general revenue-funded programs would be cut or how general revenue would be increased. You can find more about Hanaway’s proposal here.

The state General Assembly is also looking at the issue. A prefiled bill (HB 1381) would raise the state fuel tax from 17 cents to 19 cents per gallon.

First Woman Engineering Dean at University of Missouri

My alma mater, the University of Missouri College of Engineering, has named its 11^th dean, Elizabeth G. Loboa. She is the first woman to hold the position. Loboa has a background in biomedical engineer. Before coming to Mizzou, she held a joint appointment at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University.

Highway Commissioner Appointed

Gov. Jay Nixon appointed Hannibal-area lawyer John Briscoe to serve on the Missouri Highway and Transportation Commission. The appointment must be confirmed by the Senate.

Springfield Buying Wind Energy

City Utilities of Springfield announced it will be buying energy from a wind farm to be built north of Oklahoma City, OK. The wind farm is being built by Duke Energy Renewables and is designed to produce 200 megawatts.

Energy, Transportation & Water News

ENERGY

Bill Would Change Electric Ratemaking in Missouri

State Rep. Rocky Miller, who represents parts of Camden and Miller Counties near Osage Beach, introduced the 21^st Century Grid Modernization and Security Act (HB2816). The bill would substantially change the state’s method of regulating electric utility rates. The method is modeled on processes in Illinois and would allow annual adjustments to electric rates.

Another portion of the bill substantially changes provision related to special electric rates for aluminum smelters. This is largely driven by Noranda, which operates smelter in New Madrid. It seems unlikely that lower or more flexible electric rates will save the company from plummeting aluminum prices.

With the exception of Noranda, large electricity users in Missouri have generally come out against the proposal. Some companies that have expressed opposition to the bill are Purina, Bayer, Ford, General Motors and Procter & Gamble. You can read more about this topic here.

Poop to Power Project Coming to North Carolina

Duke Energy has contracted with Carbon Cycle Energy for the construction and operation of a facility to process animal waste to produce methane gas for fuel. Waste will come from area pig and chicken farms. The gas will be piped to Duke plants as fuel in electric power generation.

North Carolina is the second largest pork producing state in the U.S. Duke is a major electric power producer, particularly in the Carolinas. Carbon Cycle is based in Colorado.

TRANSPORTATION

Barrel Bob Found

Barrel Bob, a character that serves as spokesman for worksite safety for the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), was found in Columbia on April 1 (no fooling) after he was stolen from his roadside station at highway construction site in Jefferson City on March 19.   The statue, constructed from used orange and reflective white barrels and cones, was previously set on fire by vandals at this location.

This statue was one of seven Barrel Bobs. Each of MoDOT’s districts has one. Bob was scheduled to make appearances at events to promote highway worksite safety beginning April 11, so the agency had resorted to building a new statue before Bob was found. You can find out more here, here and here.

Missourians Could Vote on Fuel Tax Increase

A bill (SB623) is making its way through the Missouri Senate that could increase the state fuel tax from 17 cents per gallon to 22.9 cents per gallon. The tax, if implemented, is expected to bring in $240 million annually. The bill would place a referendum on the November ballot, meaning it would have to be approved directly by voters. Before getting that far, it must complete its path through the General Assembly. The Senate is expected to pass the bill in its final vote in the first full week of April. Afterward it will be considered by the state House of Representatives, where it is not expected to be warmly received. You can read more about this here, here and here.

Significant funding for Missouri roads comes from the federal government (which has its own funding issues). MoDOT is preparing to use cash reserves to match federal grants for transportation projects (more here).

Name a Missouri Highway

An alternative to increased fuel taxes could be the auctioning of naming rights for highways. There is no estimate of how much revenue it could raise, but I’ll go out on a limb to say not enough to persuade the General Assembly to this bill. You can read the bill here. I have the impression the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who covered this story must have chuckled as he typed.

WATER

Antibiotic Resistance Found in Bacteria Downstream of Wastewater Discharge

Researchers studying the biofilm in a Spanish river found antibiotic resistance genes. These genes occurred as far as 1 km (0.6 mile) downstream from the of a wastewater treatment plant. The genes provide resistance to some antibiotics commonly used in hospitals. You can find more here. In response to the issue of pharmaceutical pollution, some chemists are considering biodegradable drugs.

EPA Announces Director for Gulf of Mexico Program

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the selection of Ben Scaggs
as the Director of the Gulf of Mexico Program. Scaggs will be responsible for overseeing a program designed to facilitate collaborative actions to protect, maintain, and restore the health and productivity of the Gulf of Mexico.

Scaggs began his career working or the Veterans Affairs Committee in the House of Representatives then transitioned to work as a legislative assistant for Congressman G.V. "Sonny" Montgomery representing Mississippi's 3rd District. After completing a Master's degree in Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill he worked for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. He joined EPA in 1991 and currently serves as EPA’s Office Director overseeing the Agency's operation in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. Over the course of his 20 years at the Agency he has worked in the Office of Air and Radiation and as an acting Enforcement Branch Chief, in Region 4.

The Gulf of Mexico Program began in 1988. The program is financially supported by the Environmental Protection Agency and is a non-regulatory consortium of state and federal government agencies and representatives of the business and agricultural community, fishing industry, scientists, environmentalists, and community leaders from all five Gulf States.  More than 60 percent of America’s waters drain into the Gulf.

Read the original news release here.

USDOT Redirects High-Speed Rail Stimulus Away from Slow States

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced that $1.195 billion in high-speed rail funds originally designated for Wisconsin and Ohio will be redirected to other states. Wisconsin has suspended work under its existing high-speed rail agreement and the incoming Governors in Wisconsin and Ohio have both indicated that they will not move forward to use high-speed rail money received under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

ARRA included $8 billion to launch a national high-speed rail program. High-speed rail grants announced under ARRA can be used only for high-speed rail projects and not for other transportation projects.

The Federal Railroad Administration originally announced $810 million for Wisconsin’s Milwaukee-Madison corridor and $400 million for Ohio’s Cincinnati-Columbus-Cleveland “3C” route. The Federal Railroad Administration will redirect $810 million from Wisconsin and $385 million from Ohio, and will work with these states to determine whether they have already spent money under their contracts that should be reimbursed.

The $1.195 billion originally designated for those high-speed rail projects in Wisconsin and Ohio will be used to support projects in the following states:

California: up to $624 million
Florida: up to $342.3 million
Washington State: up to $161.5 million
Illinois: up to $42.3 million
New York: up to $7.3 million
Maine: up to $3.3 million
Massachusetts: up to $2.8 million
Vermont: up to $2.7 million
Missouri: up to $2.2 million
Wisconsin: up to $2 million for the Hiawatha line
Oregon: up to $1.6 million
North Carolina: up to $1.5 million
Iowa: up to $309,080
Indiana: up to $364,980

You can read the original Department of Transportation statement here.

Related posts and articles
Federal News in Brief
Federal Officials Discuss High-Speed Rail with State Officials
Infrastructure Economic Stimulus in the News
Transportation Department Releases Guidelines for Stimulus Funding of High-Speed Rail