Vice President Harris meets with Cincinnati public transit officials
Published: Apr. 30, 2021 at 5:12 PM EDT|Updated: Apr. 30, 2021 at 12:54 PM EDT
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CINCINNATI (FOX19) - Vice President Kamala Harris talked with officials Friday to discuss the value of public transit in Cincinnati.
Vice President Harris’ stop in Cincinnati was part of the “Getting America Back on Track Tour.” Harris met with city and state transportation officials at the University of Cincinnati 1819 Innovation Hub on why the American Rescue Plan invests in public transit.
$110 billion will be provided to transit agencies under the American Rescue Plan. $85 billion will be used to modernize and expand transit, while $25 billion will be for electrifying transit vehicles.
Walsh Fuchs: You came to
Overheated with years of experience reporting on climate change and advocating for a Green New Deal. Was there anything that surprised you over the course of writing this book?
Kate
Aronof
f: I initially set out to write about climate denial, but the book became more about democracy. A lot of strains of anti-democratic and climate denialist thinking converge theoretically, and thereâs also the fact that people like Charles Koch have funded efforts to erode U.S. democracy.
Walsh Fuchs
: For a long time the orthodoxy in environmental advocacy has emphasized our personal responsibility as consumers. You trace how the fossil fuel industry created that myth, naming some of the villains that got us to this point, such as Koch, specific companies, and even particular research papers with outsized influences. Who or what do you think holds the most blame, and what do they owe the rest of the world?
Nashville Tennessean
Top Republican lawmakers in Tennessee appear to have agreed on an initiative that would significantly lower the maximum period Tennesseans can collect unemployment benefits a measure they say would incentivize a return to the workforce.
The now-amended bill, sponsored by Sen. Jon Lundberg, R-Bristol, garnered the support of both Senate and House leaders Thursday after initially stalling in the upper chamber. Its previous Senate sponsor, Sen. Art Swann, R-Maryville, had said he did not intend to move the measure forward.
Under the current legislation, Tennesseans would see their weekly payments rise by up to $50 more than the $5 increase originally proposed. The maximum payout period, tied to the state s unemployment rate, could be capped at as low as 12 weeks the lowest in the nation.
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But questions remain about how to build a successful Accelerator. How large should its initial capitalization be? What can it help achieve? What instruments should it use to achieve its objectives?
The proposed $100 billion is a reasonable capitalization that allows finance on the scale required. The European Investment Bank, which lends to European Union countries with a collective GDP slightly lower than ours, has a capital base of $300 billion USD, half of which will be dedicated to support lending to low-carbon activities by 2025.
The accelerator’s capital base would drive around $460 billion of total investment in 4 years and $880 billion in 10 years, according to recentstudies by Vivid Economics. Vivid also estimated that this investment would create nearly 4 million jobs in 4 years and 12 million jobs in the next decade.
The White House released state-by-state fact sheets that highlight the urgent need in every state across the country for the investments proposed by the American Jobs Plan. The fact sheets highlight the number of bridges and miles of road in each state in poor condition, the percentage of households without access to broadband, the billions of dollars required for water infrastructure, among other infrastructure needs.
Louisianaâs infrastructure received a D+ grade on its Infrastructure Report Card:
⢠ROADS AND BRIDGES: In Louisiana there are 1,634 bridges and over 3,411 miles of highway in poor condition. Since 2011, commute times have increased by 9.3% in Louisiana and on average, each driver pays $667 per year in costs due to driving on roads in need of repair. The American Jobs Plan will devote more than $600 billion to transform our nations transportation infrastructure and make it more resilient, including $115 billion repairing roads and bridges.