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- Blog Post
The opening statement of Joseph Kile, CBO’s Director of Microeconomic Analysis, on the long-term solvency of the Highway Trust Fund before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.
- Blog Post
Last month, Members of Congress asked CBO about budgetary and economic issues related to infrastructure and investment. This blog post provides additional information about those issues and highlights some of CBO’s related work.
- Blog Post
CBO has assessed how much the supply of various types of renewable fuels would have to increase over the next several years to comply with the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), and how food and fuel prices would vary in three scenarios.
- Blog Post
CBO examined 28 options that encompass a broad range of discretionary programs. About a third of the options would affect defense programs; the rest are for nondefense programs.
- Blog Post
Buyers of new electric vehicles receive federal tax credits of up to $7,500. How do the credits compare to the total lifetime cost of owning those vehicles and to the reduction in gasoline use and greenhouse gas emissions from driving them?
- Blog Post
CBO projects that, starting in 2015, the highway account of the Highway Trust Fund will have insufficient revenues to meet its obligations, resulting in steadily accumulating shortfalls.
- Blog Post
CBO estimates that federal policies to promote the manufacture and purchase of electric vehicles (including some policies that support other types of fuel-efficient vehicles) will have a total budgetary cost of about $7.5 billion through 2019. Tax credits for buying electric vehicles—which account for about one-fourth of that budgetary cost—are likely to have the greatest impact on vehicle sales. Today CBO released a study on the effects of federal tax credits for the purchase of electric vehicles. CBO finds that:
- Blog Post
If future government spending on surface transportation infrastructure matched recent amounts, the condition of the highway and transit systems would probably deteriorate. To increase the funding available for infrastructure projects and to improve the selection process for those projects, some analysts and policymakers have suggested the creation of an “infrastructure bank.” In a report released today, CBO analyzes an illustrative federal infrastructure bank—one that is representative of those in many recent proposals.
- Blog Post
Federal highway and mass transit programs are financed largely by a variety of transportation-related excise taxes. The largest share of the revenues comes from the federal tax on gasoline, including gasoline that is blended with ethanol. Revenues from those taxes are credited to the Highway Trust Fund, and most of the spending for those programs is attributable to that fund. Because the gasoline tax is set as a fixed amount per gallon (currently 18.4 cents), policies that are designed to reduce gasoline consumption would decrease the amounts credited to the fund.
- Blog Post
Currently, the federal government and state and local governments face calls for more and better highways but confront budgetary constraints in providing them. Some analysts have suggested that public-private partnerships might supply at least a portion of that capacity by providing additional financing for road projects and improving the efficiency of a highway’s construction and operation over the life of the road.