While Obama’s “all of the above” energy strategy has been shot with recent failures- see Solyndra and Nevada Geothermal Power—he’s hoping his latest stint to salvage green energy efforts will see success.
The federal government has awarded billions of dollars out of Obama’s stimulus package for the development of streetcars across America in hopes that they will “promote more sustainable travel practices and encourage economic development,” according to the DC Streetcar website. In fact, Washington expects to see a new streetcar constructed this fall. But as a recent study points out, streetcars lack efficiency and may cost taxpayers more than they are worth.
While it seems logical to think that streetcars may encourage economic development, the real truth is that almost no new development takes place once they are installed, according to Randal O’Toole, senior fellow at the Cato Institute. “What streetcar advocates rarely if ever mention is that the city also gave developers hundreds of millions of dollars of infrastructure subsidies, tax breaks, and other incentives to build in the streetcar corridor,” he explained. “Almost no new development took place on portions of the streetcar route where developers received no additional subsidies.”
Regarding energy efficiency, streetcars don’t exactly do more for the environment than other public transit systems. “Streetcars are no more energy efficient than buses and, at least in regions that get most electricity from burning fossil fuels, the electricity powering streetcars produces as much or more greenhouse gases and other air emissions as buses,” O’Toole said.
In addition, streetcars are far more expensive. O’Toole estimates that streetcars cost roughly twice as much to operate as buses, and are costlier to build and maintain. This year’s Anacostia streetcar project will cost taxpayers $50 million in government funding. Obama’s stimulus package has also awarded $47.6 million to Atlanta, $23 million to Dallas, $23.2 million to Portland, $63 million to Tucson, $45 million to New Orleans and $25 million to Detroit under its Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Act.
Instead of focusing efforts on these costly engines of inefficiency, O’Toole says the government should focus on basic services like improving roadway safety instead.
With the economy in dire straits, young conservatives should be concerned with electing leaders and enacting policies that account for government waste and removing any unnecessary spending.
