U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood today announced that 54 high-speed rail projects in 23 states will share in $2.4 billion to continue developing America’s first nationwide program of high-speed intercity passenger rail service.

The DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration received 132 applications from 32 states totaling $8.8 billion, more than three times the $2.4 billion available.

The additional $2.4 billion is being awarded for a range of activities, such as construction of track and stations, purchase of new passenger equipment, and planning studies to develop new high-speed rail service.

In the spring of 2009 I wrote about the first round of awards for the initial $8 billion from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (‘Getting the U.S. up to Speed in Rail Travel’). That fall, applicants submitted more than $55 billion in project proposals. The federal budget called for the original $8 billion to be bolstered by $1 billion a year for five years.

The DOT announced that more than 30 rail manufacturers and suppliers have agreed to establish or expand their bases of operations in the United States if they are hired to build America’s next generation high-speed lines, a commitment the Obama Administration secured to help ensure new jobs are created here, and […]

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NEW YORK — Ongoing economic, financial and housing woes continue to hit Americans where they live — or used to.

A perfect storm of job losses, unaffordable mortgages and plunging home prices have resulted in a steady decline in homeownership over the past five years, according to the results of a U.S. Census Bureau report.

Nearly 3 million fewer Americans now own homes compared to the first quarter of 2005, when homeownership peaked at 69.1%, the Census Bureau found. During the third quarter of 2010, the homeownership rate was down to 66.9%, unchanged from a quarter earlier. That’s the lowest rate since the second quarter of 1999.

Meanwhile, a great number of homes sit empty. For owner-occupied homes, the vacancy rate remains at 2.5%, the same as in the second quarter, but well up from the sub-2% levels seen mid-decade.

For rental properties, the vacancy rate actually dropped in the third quarter, to 10.3% from 10.6% three months earlier. But that’s still up from the 9.9% rate of 24 months ago.

‘There’s a big inventory glut out there and it’s probably worse than reported,’ said Pat Newport, an analyst with IHS Global Insight. ‘The data is muddled because they don’t account for foreclosures not […]

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A new analysis from the Pacific Institute finds that climate change and its effect on freshwater supplies may lead to more cross-border conflicts over shared water resources if countries don’t start preparing now.

The analysis, conducted by the California-based research institute and the United Nations Environment Programme, echoes recent Circle of Blue reports on shared freshwater resources serving as a flashpoint for international conflicts. As climate change alters patterns of water supply and demand, as well as flood and drought, existing water agreements may no longer apply as new disputes arise.

Heather Cooley, a senior research associate with the Pacific Institute and one of the report’s authors, told Circle of Blue that for decades researchers have said that change pressures aggravate water tensions, even between governments that already have agreements in place.

‘There have been some efforts to try to evaluate the impacts of climate change, look at shortage requirements within these agreements

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Solar panel sourced power could supply 5% of global electricity demand by 2020, up to 9% by 2030 and up to 20% by 2050, according to a study from the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and Greenpeace International.

The groups say solar power may also reach the holy grail of grid parity much faster than expected.

The report, ‘Solar Generation 2010

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