Released: June 23, 2009
Oberstar: No Delay for Transportation Bill
Leaders of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee vowed last week to push forward with a new surface transportation bill despite a call from the Obama administration to put the process on hold for another 18 months. Committee Chairman Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) called the proposed delay “unacceptable.”
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood proposed delaying the launch of a new 6-year transportation spending bill during a meeting with Oberstar last wee, and in lieu of a new bill, the administration would support existing programs at their current level. Oberstar claimed a delay would cause states to steer federal money, including the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, into small transportation projects instead of bold, multi-year projects that would improve the infrastructure. Similar concerns were expressed by several presenters at the recent NASSTRAC Logistics Conference, suggesting that although it’s good news that more funding will be allocated toward infrastructure, there needs to be a broader plan to make it all happen.
Freight Index Falls To 7-Year Low
A key government measure of U.S. freight shipping fell to its lowest level in seven years in April. The Freight Transportation Index fell 1.2 percent from March to April, according to the Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, which is the seventh time in the last nine months the index has declined.
Declining volume in trucking, rail, inland waterways, pipelines and air freight brought the index down after a 10 percent drop over a nine month period. At 100.2, the index is at the lowest level since April 2002 when it was 99.3. The Freight TSI is down 11.4 percent from its historic peak of 113.1 reached in November 2005. The 1.2 percent decline in the first four months of 2009 was the second largest in the last decade, exceeded only by a 6.7 percent decline for the first four months of 2000, making it the largest so far in the 21st century. The 8.5 percent decline in the Freight TSI from April 2008 to April 2009 was the largest April-to-April decline in the 20 years for which the TSI is calculated.
Diesel Prices Reach Highest Level in 2009
The average retail price of diesel fuel increased 7.8 cents last week to $2.352 per gallon in the largest increase since March, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported to NASSTRAC this week. After a long, steep decline that seems to have bottomed out at $2.017 per gallon in the week of March 16, the average price of diesel has increased in eight of the last 11 weeks. The 7.8 cent jump in the last week is the largest climb since it gained 13.1 cents in the week of March 30 and brings the price of diesel higher than it has been since it hit $2.366 in the week of Dec. 22, 2008.
Only one year ago, at $4.707 or twice this week’s price, diesel was gathering for a final push to the historic peak of $4.764 per gallon in the week of July 14, 2008. Every region of the country saw significant gains last week with the price soaring 9.5 cents in California to $2.502 per gallon, the first push over $2.50 anywhere since diesel hit $2.514 in New England in the week of Feb. 23.
> Click for NASSTRAC's graphic regional reporting.
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