Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

Erkel:Driving less forces down price of gasoline

Jim Erkel, Land Use and Transportation Program Director at MCEA, was interviewed for a St. Paul Pioneer Press story about how Minnesotans, and Americans in general, have cut the amount of driving they did in June compared to a year ago.

U.S. Department of Transportation figures showed that the high cost of gasoline in June forced Americans to curtail their driving in order to save money. But Erkel told reporter Leslie Brooks Suzukamo that the change in driving habits is affecting the market as well as personal pocket books.

The lower price is no coincidence, said Jim Erkel, transportation expert for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, also based in St. Paul. As people drive less, they consume less gas, and as demand for gasoline drops, so does the price for gas and for oil, he said.

Here is the full story. The link may expire after a week

Do Not Enter: Are Transportation Policies Going the Wrong Way?

A new transportation report suggests that the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council are not adequately measuring the key indicators that would drive Minnesota to address the challenges of rising gas prices, an aging population and climate change.

The report, Transportation Performance in the Twin Cities Region, is the focus of a panel discussion today at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute, featuring MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel, Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell and University of Minnesota’s Center for Transportation Studies Director Robert Johns.

Transit for Livable Communities, Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and Surface Transportation Policy Partnership wrote the 32-page report. The report states the two agencies need to spend more time measuring key emerging trends, developing methods to better meld transportation and land use policies and providing greater accountability for achieving goals.

Pioneer Press highlights Clean Car act pushed by MCEA

The best efforts of the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and other environmental groups to pass a clean car law that would cut global warming pollution is running into strong opposition at the Legislature, according to a story in the St. Paul Pioneer Press today.
"We need to get going on it as quickly as we can," said MCEA's land use and transportation program director Jim Erkel.
The House bill, sponsored by Rep. Melissa Hortman, DFL-Brooklyn Park, has passed two committees and will be heard in another this week. THe Senate bill, sponspored by Sen. John Marty, DFL-Roseville, has not passed out of any committee.
The bills would require Minnesota to adopt the California Clean Car standards which are tougher than the current federal standards when it comes to cutting the amount of carbon dioxide coming from tailpipes.
To read the full story, click here. The link may be active only seven days.

Legislature overrides Pawlenty's transportation bill veto

The Legislature’s override of the governor’s veto of the transportation bill Monday is a big boost for the environment after years of hard work by the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the transportation and transit organizations with whom MCEA worked.

The one-fourth percent increase in the state sales tax in the metro area will, at long last, provide a stable pot of money to build out the light-rail, commuter rail and bus system that nearly everyone agrees the Twin Cities needs.

New MCEA data reveals deficient bridges, politicians' votes

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy released maps and data bases on more than 300 Minnesota bridges which will allow citizens to become informed on the state of their bridges and the votes of their representatives on transportation issues.

Maps Bundle contains four maps indicating the sites of functionally obsolete and structurally deficient bridges in Minnesota. Two maps are of the entire state (one showing counties, the other legislative districts) and the other two are the Twin Cities Metropolitan area. The maps are in PDF format

Data Bundle contains a set of data tables in Microsoft Excel format. These tables include existing bridge conditions and which legislative districts surround the bridges. Additionally, the voting record for the legislators on the 2005 and 2007 transportation bills are included. It also includes an explanation of the data fields and definition of terms.

GIS Shp Bundle contains a geographic information systems shapefile containing point symbols of all the bridges with data about general bridge conditions and all of the data in the Data Tables embedded in the file. The user must have GIS software to utilize these files.

MCEA in the News-In Central Corridor:better rules, better development

"The market for transit-oriented development is substantial when the right rules are applied. Right now, St. Paul doesn't have them. Other regions get attractive mixes of shops, ofices and residences and we get parking on the roof of one-story big boxes," wrote MCEA's Jim Erkel in an op-ed published in the St. Paul Pioneer Press. To read his full opinion piece, click here.

MCEA in the News—Minnesota's average gasoline bill tops nation

MCEA's Jim Erkel weighs in on the price of gas in the Twin Cities.

Pioneer Press 06/22/2007 06:44:00 PM CDT

"We're usually proud to be number one in something, but this is one (ranking) we ought to be shrinking away from," said Jim Erkel, an attorney who directs the land use and transportation programs for the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, a nonprofit environmental and energy research group in St. Paul.

Click here to read the entire article.

(If you click the link and the article does not appear, it means free access to the article has expired. You can still use the publication's archive search to find it, though. There may be a cost to you associated with accessing archived material.)

MCEA in the News—A new color for University Avenue

Jim Erkel talks about plans for University Avenue in the era of light rail in this Finance & Commerce article.

A new color for University Avenue
Finance & Commerce
By By Bill Clements, F&C Feature Writer
June 21, 2007

Jim Erkel, chairman of the University United Environmental Task Force, said the aim of his group is to develop a green plan for University Avenue that will apply to the onrush of development expected around the $930 million Central Corridor light-rail line.

“We want to build off of the recommendations in the city’s Central Corridor Development Strategy, which tries to point the city in the direction of greening up the avenue and making it a showcase for green building,” Erkel said.

Finance & Commerce allows only subscribers to access their articles. Visit their website at: www.finance-commerce.com

Today's Environmental News

Click below to read today's Minnesota environmental news headlines from Environmental Health News.

MCEA in the News—Sierra Club sues to block St. Croix Bridge again

MCEA's Land Use & Transportation Program Director Jim Erkel was quoted in this Pioneer Press article.

The Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy, which also participated in the panel, considered litigation but decided against it because the mitigation package was "decent enough," said Jim Erkel, the group's land-use and transportation director.

Click here to read the entire article.

(If you click the link and the article does not appear, it means free access to the article has expired. You can still use the publication's archive search to find it, though. There may be a cost to you associated with accessing archived material.)