Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
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12 COMMERCIAL CARRIER JOURNAL | MARCH 2015 JOURNAL NEWS "We don't need to plan for 1956 – we need to plan for 2045," he said, hinting that the gas and diesel tax shouldn't be the only funding option on the table. "We need to build new things again. Our nation is growing by 70 million people over the next 30 years, and that growth is coming largely in the South and western part of our country. We will choke on that growth if we're not careful." Sanders' bill would encompass more than just highway spending, but it seemingly would function as a de-facto surface transportation reauthorization bill. He did not give specifics on how the bill would be funded, and he did not mention a fuel tax increase. The House's Transportation 2.0 bill is a six-year $170 billion funding measure that would direct $150 billion into the HTF, moving away from using taxes on gasoline and diesel to fund the HTF, which has been the case since it was established in the 1950s. The Democrat-backed package would put $50 billion in an infrastructure bank that would be used to draw in private investors, said Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.), who filed the bill. On the other side of the aisle, a few House Republicans floated the idea of expanding oil and gas drilling on federal lands and offshore drilling as a means to help boost the HTF. The White House and Boxer-Paul proposals have one key element in common: They would use funds from a tax known as "repatriation," in which companies could bring money cur- rently held in foreign banks back to the United States and be taxed just once on their return. The White House option is an expansion of the four-year $302 billion Grow America Act submitted by Obama and Foxx in 2014. It would use a repatriation tax of 14 percent, which the administration says would produce $238 billion in revenue. Obama's plan designates a combined $317 billion to U.S. roads and bridges from the 2016 fiscal year through the 2021 fiscal year. The initial Grow America Act was essentially dead on arrival, and its chance for action in the new Republican- controlled Congress likely is worse than in the prior Congress. The Boxer-Paul plan also would use repatriation tax that they say could generate $2 trillion in tax revenue on earnings cur- rently held overseas. The Invest in Transportation Act would tax the foreign earnings at a rate of 6.5 percent, the entirety of which would be designated for the HTF. The fuel tax on gasoline and diesel was last raised in 1993 and has been impacted by inflation, better fuel economy and increased costs of labor and construction. – James Jaillet L ifetime exposure to modern diesel exhaust does not induce tumors or precancerous changes, according to the first comprehensive study of the matter. The Health Effects Institute issued the Jan. 27 report, which also concluded that concentrations of particulate matter and toxic air pollutants from modern diesels are more than 90 percent lower than from older diesel engines. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, among other agencies, sponsor the HEI but do not participate in selection or review of the insti- tute's work. The HEI's Advanced Collaborative Emissions Study exposed laboratory rats to EPA-compliant 2007 heavy-duty engines for 80-hour weeks for as long as 30 months. Researchers con- cluded lifetime exposure did not induce tumors or precancer- ous changes in the rats' lungs and did not increase tumors related to new technology diesel exhaust in any other tissue. The study was conducted by researchers from New Mexico's Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, New York's Litron Laboratories, University of Kentucky and University of Texas' medical branch. Their work was overseen by the HEI ACES Oversight Committee's independent experts, while biological find- ings were reviewed independently by a separate Pathology Working Group. The investigators' compre- hensive description of findings then was sub- jected to peer review by an expert ACES Review Panel, whose members were not involved in con- ducting the study. The nonprofit Diesel Technology Forum says more than one-third of all commercial trucks on the road have 2007 engines or newer. In some states, the percentage of NTDE-equipped trucks exceeds 50 percent. These newer engines have reduced particulate matter and NOx emissions by 98 percent compared to 1988 vehicles, according to DTF, whose members represent clean diesel manufacturers, suppliers and fuel refiners. – Jill Dunn Study: Exhaust from newer diesel engines not linked to cancer DTF says more than one-third of all commer- cial trucks on the road have 2007 engines or newer. Highway funding | Continued from page 9