Save the Date! ELPC 2012 Benefit Will Be Nov. 14th
This year's ELPC Benefit will be Nov. 14th in downtown Chicago. Read details here!
ELPC Ranked in Top 10 Highest-Rated Charities in U.S.
Based on ELPC’s Charity Navigator score on financial strength and management, ELPC is being recognized in the media as among “The 10 Highest-Rated Charities in America: 2011.” ELPC is the only environmental group and the only advocacy group on this list. Moreover, ELPC is the only listed group, which is located between the coasts. Read more on MSN Money and Main Street.
ELPC’s Chicago Eco-Office Receives LEED Platinum Certification
ELPC's new green office features natural daylighting, state-of-the-art HVAC controls, low-flow plumbing fixtures, ENERGY STAR appliances, and recycled and locally sourced materials. Learn about our new office.
Des Moines Register August 21, 2009
Guest Column by Howard A. Learner
The world has changed. Just a few years ago, many people thought that high-speed rail development here was just a dream. Now, it’s moving to reality. President Barack Obama has made high-speed rail development his No. 1 national transportation priority 50 years after President Dwight Eisenhower advanced the build-out of the nation’s interstate highway system.
On July 27, eight Midwest governors signed a memorandum of understanding, committing to combine regional and state planning and development work, prioritize corridor build-outs and coordinate applications for federal funding. There is a new bipartisan Midwest Congressional High-Speed Rail Caucus. The Iowa City-Quad Cities-Chicago rail line is gaining support and momentum, setting the stage for an extension to Des Moines.
This structural transformation of our transportation system will improve mobility with a new, fast, comfortable and convenient transportation option. It will create jobs and spur economic growth by pulling together the regional economy. It will protect our environment through less pollution, reducing congestion and counteracting sprawl by pulling jobs, people and businesses downtown into our central cities.
There is broad national support for high-speed rail development. Forty states have proposed 278 projects seeking $102 billion in federal funding. In addition to the $8 billion in federal economic-stimulus funding, the House has now appropriated $4 billion more for fiscal year 2010 and has proposed $50 billion in the federal transportation reauthorization legislation.
Here’s how Midwest high-speed rail can succeed:
- First, as Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph Szabo urges, we need “one region, one voice.” We should support a regional vision of a vibrant Midwest tied together by high-speed rail connections. Midwest governors are working together in coordinating their state plans and federal funding bids. The rest of us should support this vision and this cooperation.
- Second, let’s not let perfection stand in the way of progress. The Midwest Regional Rail Initiative’s ultimate vision includes 3,000 miles of passenger rail serving 65 million people in nine Midwest states. With a vision this ambitious and complex, there will be details that are less than perfect. Let’s not permit controversies over particular stations, routes or speeds stand in the way of a united front and overall progress.
- Third, the Federal Railroad Administration’s rules for the federal economic-stimulus funding competitive bids make clear that this isn’t only about trains. This is about mobility. This is about job creation. This is about economic development, growth and revitalization. This is about livable communities, less pollution and a better environment.
In moving to realize this big vision, let’s also focus on synergies to make these rail investments succeed. Let’s invest in train stations, as Milwaukee, St. Louis and St. Paul are doing. Let’s bolster transit, bus, taxi and airline connections so that rail stations can serve as truly intermodal hubs of economic activity. Let’s creatively build up vibrant communities around train stations. Let’s rebuild the rail manufacturing industry, and expand use of cleaner biofuels as Govs. Chet Culver and Pat Quinn are discussing.
Working together, we can create a win-win-win for our region: good for jobs and our economy, good for the environment, and good for people and our communities. Let’s get on board together and advance smart Midwest high-speed rail development on a fast track.
The 500 freight trains that pass through Chicago each day create major delays that slow down both freight and passenger rail traffic. The Chicago Region Environmental and Transportation Efficiency program, or CREATE, is the plan that will help speed up rail traffic through Chicago.
CREATE received new funding through Illinois’ recent capital bill that will move the project forward. This is an important victory for the freight rail industry the Midwest high speed rail network.
As ELPC Deputy Director Kevin Brubaker told the Associated Press, “CREATE and high-speed rail for the Midwest are inextricably linked. To make high-speed rail work, we need to clear up congestion in Chicago.”
The Federal Railroad Administration announced in an interview this week that the Midwest and California are leading the competition for $8 billion dollars of stimulus funding for high speed rail plans. Eight Midwest states have collaborated on a plan for a new high speed rail system in the Midwest which will update three existing routes, placing Chicago as the network hub. This rail plan is one of the most developed of the plans to be submitted to the FRA, with initial deadlines for plan applications set in early July. Read the article in Businessweek to learn more about FRA guidelines and other regions’ high speed rail plans.
WTTW’s Chicago Tonight program highlighted efforts to get a Midwest High-Speed Rail Network going as part of its Chicago Matters series. “This is a big deal,” ELPC Executive Director Howard Learner says as he describes the new economic stimulus funding for high-speed rail. “This is a potential fundamental change in the transportation infrastructure of the Midwest.” Watch the full Chicago Tonight segment.
The opening of ELPC’s new office in Iowa created a stir in the media and focused attention to what Iowa can do to grow the green economy and help solve global warming. Reporters paid extra attention to Iowa’s unique opportunity to use federal stimulus funding to develop fast, convenient rail transportation between Chicago and Des Moines.
On the day that ELPC celebrates the opening of its new Iowa office, Executive Director Howard Learner lays out a plan for Iowa’s future in an OpEd in the Des Moines Register. He points out that Iowa is well-positioned to be a leader in the growing green economy, specifically with three major opportunities in energy efficiency, wind power and high-speed rail development.
“Energy, environmental, employment, economic and national-security goals are converging. President Barack Obama and Congress are moving toward realigning our nation to accelerate clean-energy development to create new jobs and achieve significant greenhouse-gas pollution reductions. Clean-energy development is a win-win-win for job creation, economic growth and better environmental quality.”
Appearing on WISN TV’s Upfront With Mike Gousha, ELPC’s Deputy Director Kevin Brubaker explains some of the benefits high-speed rail will bring to the Wisconsin and the Midwest, including new jobs, economic development and more convenient travel. ELPC has worked for 15 years to bring high speed rail the to Midwest. Our work took a great step forward when the Economic Stimulus Act invested $8 billion in for high speed rail.
We’re doing handsprings at the ELPC office! The breakthrough $9.3 billion of high-speed rail development funding in the economic stimulus legislation results from the Environmental Law & Policy Center spending years building the coalitions, making the policy, economic and environmental case, and briefing and gaining support from then-Congressional candidate Rahm Emanuel, then-Congressman Dick Durbin and then-Senator and then-Presidential candidate Barack Obama. The long-delayed vision of modern, fast, comfortable and convenient higher-speed rail passenger service linking Midwest cities and structural transportation reform for the nation is now moving forward.
On April 23, 2009, ELPC held a webinar briefing on new developments and funding affecting the Midwest High-Speed Rail Network
Please take a look at the attached ELPC press release, and a recent Politico.com story that underscores how President Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel drove forward this new federal high-speed rail development program at the Conference Committee stage of the economic stimulus legislation. ELPC’s investment of time with them over the years has paid off wonderfully for the public and for transportation innovation for the Midwest and the nation.
The New York Times reports that a good chunk of the $8 billion for high-speed rail included in the economic stimulus package may benefit the Midwest.
ELPC’s President Howard Learner is quoted stating that the Midwest high-speed rail network is the US rail system that is most ready to go. The Midwest high-speed rail network would connect Chicago with 11 metropolitan areas within a 400 mile radius. For 15 years, ELPC has built support for high-speed rail in the Midwest, meeting with high-speed rail’s most influential backers, including President Obama, Senator Richard Durbin and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.
The final version of the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act now before Congress includes an unprecedented $8 billion investment in high-speed rail. In addition, Amtrak will receive $1.3 billion to rebuild trains and improve its capacity.
“We commend President Obama and Congress for helping to get America moving again with modern trains,” said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center. “Investing in high-speed rail projects will put people to work quickly, create new economic opportunities, increase mobility and reduce traffic congestion and pollution.”
The $8 billion made available through the Economic Recovery and Reinvestment Act will be awarded competitively to states to improve passenger rail service, primarily on those corridors where 110 mph service is proposed. Funds can also be used on conventional rail projects that relieve congestion. The Midwest is very well positioned, with federally designated high-speed rail corridors radiating out in a hub-and-spoke network from Chicago to St. Louis, Cleveland, Detroit, Milwaukee, Madison and the Twin Cities.
“The Environmental Law & Policy Center has long called for the development of a Midwest high-speed rail network. Governors and state Departments of Transportation have embraced high-speed rail as modern, fast, comfortable and convenient. We have done the homework and prep work. These projects are now ready to build,” said Learner. “We look forward to working with the states to meet Congress’s challenge to rebuild America with cleaner transportation.”
“Congress has moved on the right track toward economic recovery,” said Learner. “Investing in modern, high-speed rail is an important down payment on America’s transportation future.”
