Transit groups try to turn high gas prices to their advantage

As motorists sweat through a summer of high gas prices, “smart growth” and mass transit advocates believe their time may have finally come.

Programs they support have long taken a back seat to upgrading and expanding the nation’s roadways in terms of federal financing, they contend.

{mosads}But as Americans board buses and clamor onto packed railway cars in greater numbers than ever to ease the strain of $4-a-gallon gasoline, urban planning and public transportation lobbyists are preparing a new push to convince Congress to embrace public policies that encourage even more workers to leave their cars at home.

They have short- and long-term goals. In the remaining weeks, for example, environmental groups like Friends of the Earth are trying to beat back efforts to expand offshore drilling by stressing ways Americans can cut down on demand to ease the pain at the pump.

They’ve coalesced around a bill introduced by Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) and Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) called the Transportation and Housing Choices for Gas Price Relief Act of 2008.

The bill would create new tax breaks to commuters who carpool and to those who “telecommute” and work from home, provide additional federal money to subsidize transit fares, and promote the development of public housing near transit systems.

“The likelihood that we can be forever drilling enough of a supply from the finite resources off our shores to satisfy the burgeoning demand is nuts,” said Colin Peppard, transportation policy coordinator for Friends of the Earth.

Americans are demanding more options to their cars, Peppard said. His group and 15 others signed a letter this month in support of the transit bill. The measure will “foster timely solutions to reduce our dependence on oil and our national vulnerability to the movements of oil markets,” wrote advocates for the League of Conservation Voters , Sierra Club , National Audubon Society , Smart Growth America and others.

Although the transit bill is a way for opponents of oil drilling to blunt the Republican push to give oil and gas companies more access to areas now off-limits, the real goal for lobbyists is the battle next year over the reauthorization of the Highway Trust Fund.

Traditionally, 80 percent of the money collected from the gas tax has gone to upgrade and expand the highway system, with the bulk of the remainder going to public transportation programs, including light rails and buses.

A new coalition, Transportation for America, www.t4america.org , is starting to lobby to boost funding for transit programs like high-speed rail and federal help to communities that pass zoning laws that reduce the need for workers to commute long distances.

The coalition, which includes Smart Growth America, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group , the National Association of Realtors and the American Public Health Association , is planning an official rollout in September.

Advocates are planning a grassroots campaign that feeds off voter fears over the high costs of energy.

“It is a shock to our consciousness,” Peppard said. “And I think that most people, while hoping it’s not true, are starting to believe the era of cheap gasoline is over.”

Reducing the miles Americans drive not only reduces the need to import foreign oil, it also promises environmental benefits. More than 40 percent of the carbon dioxide released in the United States comes from petroleum use, according to the Energy Information Administration.

“We should be providing support to states and planning organizations to reduce fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions,” said Steven Winkelman, director of the Transportation and Adaptation Programs at the Center for Clean Air Policy .

Now, “with limited travel choices, Americans are left vulnerable to high fuel prices,” Winkelman told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week. The panel examined ways Congress could support the conservation of fuel in response to high fuel costs.

Americans are already moving to public transportation in greater numbers than before. The American Public Transportation Association said that Americans took 88 million more trips on public transit systems during the first three months of 2008 than they did during the same period in 2007. And that was before gas prices spiked to more than $4 a gallon.

But the decline in driving has at least one negative ramification: It reduces the amount of money collected under the gas tax, which pays for both highway construction and transit programs under the transportation bill Congress authorizes every five years or so. There could be less money available for lawmakers to haggle over next year, when the current highway authorization expires. That, in turn, could increase the level of haggling as the competition for a smaller pot of dollars grows.

Several powerful constituencies back highway programs: state highway officials, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Association of General Contractors , to name just a few. And these groups have already started on a campaign to boost the highway budget to pay for road and bridge improvements needed to maintain economic growth.

Both transit and highway lobbies will likely advocate shifting away from the gas tax to pay for the trust fund, but the two could differ over where the money should be spent.

“We wanted to start early because we wanted the broadest reach possible and we wanted to win,” Peppard said.