The Impact of IMPACT

The Impact of IMPACT

Brown Bill to Help Manufacturers Retool for Energy Industry

Brown More Open Minded Now about Nuclear Power

by John Michael Spinelli

June 16, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Junior Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown announced Wednesday that he and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, (D-Michigan) will introduce a bill to help auto suppliers and other manufactures retool for the arrival of the energy industry, as prospects dim for Ohio manufacturers in response to the shifting sands of the U.S. auto industry.

Slightly off topic for today's agenda, Brown responded to a reporter's question about his position on nuclear power, with the announcement to day by Gov. Ted Strickland that a new nuclear power plant will be built in southern Ohio at the former nuclear material processing facility in Piketon, south of Columbus, the capital.

Brown said he has come a long way from how he thought of nuclear plants decades ago, and says he is now open minded about it. Supporters of the nuclear power plant, the first to be developed since the near meltdown at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, say its power, because it doesn't release emissions long attributed to causing global warming, is in today's parlance, "Green."

What Brown didn't say but what this reporter thinks will bode more confidence in everyone that it will be built correctly, was the announcement that one parter in the project will be Areva, a French energy company. Franc's nuclear energy industry is state owned and standardized and has a long history of producing save, reliable and affordable energy for the nation.

What does IMPACT, or Investment for Manufacturing Progress in Clean Technology Act, mean to Brown, who has added today's announcement to a list of others on energy he has made recently that include the announced release of $3.2 million to support clean energy research and development projects in Akron and Canton, a visit to a solid waste authority in Central Ohio as a backdrop to discuss his proposal to expand the use of municipal solid waste as a source of clean energy and his role in the release of a Pew Charitable Trust report on "repowering jobs, businesses and investment across America," a study he referenced again today.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters, Brown said he expects his bill to be included in congressional legislation on climate change, and that enabling small- to medium-sized manufacturers to transition to become more energy efficient or retool to manufacture parts for wind, solar or bio-fuels or for other industries is also a good public policy goal.

He noted that manufacturing auto components is the largest single category of manufacturers in the nation, employing over 680,000 workers, so any help that can be directed toward this sector to keep them going, if not in the same line of work but in a different one like energy, is good.

Wendy Patton of Policy Matters Ohio joined Brown by supplying research information her non-profit, non-partisan group compiles, showing on a county-by-county basis the possible potential of Ohio businesses that would be eligible to participate in a program to be administered and run by states that meet certain national criteria, including having produced their own plans for addressing high-unemployment areas and assistance directed at building manufacturing supply chains.

Patton said PMO's report identified 3,000 Ohio manufacturers, employing 250,000 workers, that could benefit from Brown's proposed federal initiative.

In prepared remarks, Brown said the backdrop to his initiative is that as Congress is weighing sweeping energy and climate change legislation, but the more immediate immediate challenges faced by auto suppliers and the manufacturing industry, which means federal help is needed to support the development of domestic clean energy manufacturing and production.

Supported by leaders in the business, environmental, and labor communities, Brown said his bill, capitalized by $30 billion in treasury funds, would convert to a revolving loan fund after two years. If passed, the bill will become a new funding source designed to help auto suppliers and other manufacturers retool for the clean energy industry. Over time, Brown said his initiative would lead to the creation of 180,000 direct jobs and three-times as many in indirect jobs.

To accomplish these goals, Brown's bill would improve manufacturers’ access to capital and invest in energy-efficient technologies, which he said would create new jobs and increase the competitiveness of domestic manufacturing.

In questions from reporters, Brown said that not only would wind, solar and other energy-related sectors be welcome, but he said any transportation technology that is clean and energy-efficient would also be a good fit for his bill.

For states, who Brown said will process applications, they will need to show proof of their plans for high-unemployment areas, the development of manufacturing supply chains and increasing steel production, which has plummeted of late, among other national criteria his bill sets out.

Brown is right to be energized to by stopping the abuse the country's economic woes have visited on manufacturers, Buckeye or otherwise. The state's largest paper by circulation, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, ran a story of two reports out today [MSNBC and Brookings] that showed Ohio will again lag behind other states in recovering from the Great Recession, which next to Pennsylvania has hurt Ohio the most.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter at OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com
The Impact of IMPACT

Ohio Cities Fare Poorly on Worldwide Quality of Life Rankings

Ohio Cities Fare Poorly on Worldwide Quality of Life Rankings

Only Ohio City Listed is Cleveland

by John Michael Spinelli

June 16, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Analysis of a report that ranked 215 cities worldwide on their quality of life (QOL) and infrastructure showed that European cities again dominated, with only a handful of American cities making the list. For Ohio, whose major cities have drifted down instead of up in recent years, Cleveland was the only city to make the list for both QOL and infrastructure.

According to Mercer, a leading global provider of consulting, outsourcing and investment services owned by Marsh and McLennan Companies, its 2009 Quality of Living Global City Rankings Survey showed Vienna, Austria as the highest for overall quality of living and Baghdad, Iraq, the worst.

With respect to city infrastructure, Singapore ranked first with Baghdad again bringing up the rear.

For North American cities, Canadian cities still dominated the top of the index, with Vancouver (#4) retaining the top spot and Honolulu (#29) being the top-ranked U.S. city for QOL. Washington D.C. and New York ranked 44 and 49 respectively. For purposes of scoring, New York was the base city.

In the list of 215 cities based on QOL, the U.S. scored rankings for San Francisco (#30), Boston (#37), Portland, Oregon (#48), Washington, D.C. and Chicago tied (#44), New York (#49), Seattle (#50), Lexington, KY (#51),Pittsburgh (#52), Winston Salem (#53), Los Angeles and Cleveland tied (#59), Minneapolis (#61), Houston (#62), Miami #63), St. Louis and Detroit tied (#65) and Atlanta (#67). No other U.S. cities made the grade.

For its ranking of cities based on infrastructure, Singapore was first, Munich second and Copenhagen placed third. Infrastructure was based on electricity, supply, water availability, telephone and mail services, public transport, traffic congestion and the range of international flights from local airports. For fans of Ohio, this adds some fuel to the discussion of whyNCR moved from Dayton to Atlanta, which was the first U.S. city to make the list, coming in at #15.

It was followed by Washington D.C. (#24), Chicago (#28), New York (#32), Boston (#33), Honolulu (#41), Miami ($47), Houston (#49), Seattle ($49), San Francisco (#52), Minneapolis (#56), Los Angeles (#57),Pittsburgh (#61), Detroit (#62), Portland, Oregon and St. Louis tied (#63), Winston Salem (#66), Lexington, KY (#68) and Cleveland (#69) being the rear guard of U.S cities.

Performed to help governments and major companies place employees on international assignments, Slagin Parakatil, senior researcher at Mercer, said, "As a result of the current financial crisis, multinationals are looking to review their international assignment policies with a view to cutting costs."

On the topic of infrastructure, Parakatil said it has a "significant effect on the quality of life of living experienced by expatriates" and that while it is often taken for granted when functioning to a high standard, "a city's infrastructure can generate severe hardships when it is lacking." He noted that companies need to provide adequate allowances to compensate their international workers for these and other hardships."

Even though Cleveland has garnered the ignominious honor of being ranked high among America's poorest big cities on several occasions, it can be proud that it stands head and shoulders above all other Ohio cities, none of which made Mercer's top 215 city list.

As Ohio seeks to restore jobs and prosperity to itself, it should work to bolster those QOL criteria that others see as important. Otherwise, we'll be talking a good game without actually taking the field to make it happen.

But with Ohio's next biennial budget in free-fall, it's little wonder the state will have a decreasing ability to follow through on larger statewide policy goals, leaving locals, strapped for cash themselves, to figure out how to keep their boats floating with so many leaks to tend to.

Mercer press contacts said the data was largely collected between September and November of 2008 and is regularly updated to take account of changing circumstances. In particular, Mercer said the assessments are revised in the case of any new developments. The Mercer database contains more than 420 cities, ,but only 215 have been considered for the QOL 2008 ranking in order to compare them from one year to the next.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. Spinelli on Assignment is syndicated by Newstex.com, can be followed on Twitter at OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to Kindle owners. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Ohio Bill New Tool to Boost Regional Transportation Projects, Sponsors Say

Ohio Bill New Tool to Boost Regional Transportation Projects, Sponsors Say

Government, Business Potential Partners on Qualified Projects

Lawmakers Vest Final Vote with State Transportation Director

by John Michael Spinelli

June 14, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Ohio governments and businesses could form investments teams to construct and operate regionally significant intermodal systems including public transit, freight and passenger rail systems, according to testimony provide last Wednesday by two prominent Ohio senators from opposite ends of the state and political spectrum, who have teamed up to propose the formation of Transportation Innovation Authorities (TIA).

The senators, Capri Cafaro, a Democrat whose district is in northeast Ohio, close to Cleveland and Lake Erie, and Tom Niehaus, whose district is in the southwest, close to Cincinnati and the Ohio River, stood next to each other last week, when the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee convened for business.

In addition to a first hearing on the outline of TIAs (SB121), the approval of Governor's appointment including the naming by Ted Strickland earlier this year of Jolene Molitoris to be the Director of Transportation was also on the agenda. Molitoris became the first woman Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration when then-President Clinton appointed her in 1993 and the first woman to break the glass ceiling at the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) when Gov. Strickland promoted her this January to hold the reigns of and director the horsepower of the $7-plus billion agency that oversees federal and state funds.

Strickland and Molitoris are backing the re-establishment of passenger rail service, diagonally across the state from Cincinnati to Dayton to Columbus to Cleveland, they hope $400 million in one-time federal stimulus dollars will cover the estimated costs for re-starting a service that has not left or arrived in any station in nearly 42 years. Strickland said he does not want Ohio to be left behind as an island as federal plans to fund more passenger rail gathers momentum despite the few funds President Obama has made available for such uses.

Cafaro, whose dozen-member caucus elected her as its leader last November, said in written testimony that it was her hope that the bill "will enhance the efficiency of Ohio's transportation system by encouraging the investment of public and private resources in the planning and implementation of innovative transportation Projects."

Creating a new authority for a defined period of time, in a defined geographical jurisdiction, where various government subdivisions or agencies can rally around a common regional transportation project with private business would be a boon for a state whose state budget is imploding, leaving locals to look to each other instead of Columbus for help with transportation priorities and plans.

Addressing Chairman Sen. Tom Patton, a Republican from Cleveland, and committee members, Cafaro said that among the various funding sources made available to TIA by the bill, taxes imposed by the authority itself would be prohibited.

Niehaus, a term-limited Republican by 2012, said the "newness of the concept and the many questions surrounding its proposed utilization," were two reasons to yank it from the State Transportation bill agreed to in March. "TIAs offer a unique ability for the pubic and private sectors to partner on the construction and operation of conventional transportation investments, as well as on intermodal, light rail or intercity rail projects,"Niehaus said in prepared remarks.

While Molitoris was not personally in the room, the authority vested in the transportation director was. As currently proposed, the bill would give the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) authority to approve a TIA or any of its projects. Projects qualified for ODOT approval would be contingent upon local entities adopting planning and zoning guidelines with the TIA' defined geography that would "assure that land use is conducive to the purpose of the district and does not set the stage for unintended, unplanned and unprogrammed additional improvements."

Once a partnership is struck between ODOT and a TIA, the transportation fun could begin. ODOT, in return for the TIA meeting standards established in the bill, would be free to provide planning and project development funds, favorable financing and improved project scheduling to the communities of the TIA. One helpful resource would bee access to a "new generation of investment" by ODOT's State Infrastructure Bank. The OSIB could offer low interest loans for public transit, multi-modal projects and intercity rail, an extension of what it currently does for roadway and bridge projects. Niehaus said ODOT is working to identify $170 million over the next two years to expand the OSIB.

Responding to questions from Senators, Cafaro reminded them that, as the Highway Trust Fund runs dry due in part due to less gas tax being collected as people drive fewer miles as the price of gas rises, locals looking to each other is better than looking for help from Washington.

The inclusion of the word "innovation" in the new authority's title should extend to not only innovative ways of financing a shared public interest with infrastructure we are familiar with, but also to the "innovation" of the transportation technology being considered. For an advanced train technology like Tubular Rail, whose capital costs are significantly lower than traditional railroads, the news of what a TIA can do is good news. Other technologies that bring new solutions to old problems should be embraced not as red-haired outliers but as a new way of moving people and goods in new ways.

The debate over investing untold billions in roads and bridges and other conventional transportation modes, no matter how familiar we are with them, is an important one. The cost of standard infrastructure, including water, sewer and energy facilities, is at an all-time high. The cost of transportation infrastructure, from trolleys, to light rail to high-speed trains, is even more expensive, which means TIAs and the planning groups they are tied to need to look either for ways to reduce project costs or look for innovative transportation technology that is less capital intensive.

The Senate bill is the upper house's version of the House version, which Niehuas characterized as a "starting point for consideration."

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. SOA is now on Twitter at OhioNewsBureau and available for subscription to owners of Amazon's Kindle. To send a news tip or make comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

American Idol for Train Transportation Needed in Ohio

American Idol for Train Transportation Needed in Ohio

Strickland Increases Cost, Time for 3-C Rail Plan

Texas TV Covers "Big Dig" for TR Technology Prototype

by John Michael Spinelli

June 10, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: In Washington Tuesday with other state officials like Governor Jennifer Granholm of Michigan who hope to snag a share of federal stimulus dollars to spend to launch a comeback for passenger rail service, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland and Jolene Molitoris, the state director for transportation, have revised the cost upward and pushed back the time to connect Cincinnati to Cleveland by rail, according to one published report.

"If we don't do this we will be left behind," Strickland told Ohio reporters at the state's Washington office before his meetings with the federal officials," as reported by The Columbus Dispatch. "Ohio will be an island in the middle of this nation without passenger rail service -- we will not be appropriately connected to a system that will be broad-based, and it would be intolerable for us."

The Washington bureau chief for "Ohio's Greatest Newspaper" reported that Strickland, who knows his Republican challenger for re-election in 2010 is John Kasich, and Molitoris , whose confirmation to her post will be considered this week by the Republican-led Ohio Senate, are still tap dancing around the cost and time-frame to return passenger rail service to Ohio via the existing network of freight tracks that cannot handle high-speed trains. Jonathan Riskind of The Columbus Dispatch reported the duo saying the cost to launch their runaway train to the past has escalated from $250 million to $400, while pushing its launch date back another six months to the first quarter of 2011. Strickland said the costs could be less, depending on findings from a passenger rail study to be finished this year by Amtrak. He didn't say and no reporter asked if they might also be more.

3-C CORRIDOR PLAN NOW MORE COSTLY, LATER TO ARRIVE

Hedging on the costs of an idea that has turned into a runaway policy train Strickland, Molitoris and supporters of the slow train to the past are stuck on, the governor told Riskind that "it wouldn't require too much in the way of state funding for annual operation costs - in the neighborhood of $10 million or less."

Keep in mind that Strickland and House Democrats who support the so-called 3-C Corridor rail plan are engaged in a battle royal with Senate Republicans over Ohio's worsening budget picture, which some sources say could require a $2-billion patch job just for the current fiscal year that expires at the end of June. Combining this sour situation with the growth in Ohio's jobless benefits and a shrinking state GDP, why are Gov. Strickland and Director Molitoris so headstrong about a rail plan that doesn't deliver speed but will still cost a lot and may not be fully functional, if ever, for decades to come?

Draconian cuts wait in the wings for various state programs and agencies. Eschewing a public subsidy as far as the eye can see for a train system that few will ride even though all tax payers will be tapped to pay for it appears both tone deaf to economic reality and blind to the dangers of politics, especially if Kasich and Republicans decide to make the 3-C rail plan a campaign issue that shows just how far out of touch the good governor and his eminence gries are with newer, faster, greener train technologies.

Molitoris, appointed by President Clinton in 1993 to be the first woman Administrator of the Federal Railroad Administration, has been the Casey Jones of Ohio's ill-conceived passenger rail plan, high-balling a likely $1 billion investment plan down a freight track that will never accommodate truly high speed trains that need separate, purpose-driven tracks on which to attain truly high speeds as Euro-style trains do.

In a separate story this week showing the advantage of a grade-separated system like Tubular Rail offers over the surface-based system state officials want to push, a tractor-trailor ran into a CSX train in Worthington, Ohio, a suburb of Columbus. Such a collision is impossible with TR technology.

AMERICAN IDOL FOR OHIO TRANSPORTATION

Ohio should do for train transportation what American Idol does for singers who think they have talent, namely, sponsor and conduct an audition for any train or transport technology that thinks it has a smarter, faster, greener, emission free, affordable and less disruptive idea to current infrastructure when compared to current technology to come forward and audition for state leaders and their technology advisers, who would give them fair and balanced consideration and select those they want to "pass through to Hollywood" for further R&D funding or even outright investment in, so Ohio could enter the future confident that they had found a future-ready train system it would use to create jobs and spur economic development.

At a meeting recently between officials of Tubular Rail, a Texas-based company who holds patents for its "trackless train" technology, and top officials for the Ohio Department of Development, the idea to use ODOT's pavilion at the Ohio State Exposition and Fair to showcase advanced transportation technologies -- like Tubular Rail, Monomobile, MegaRail, Personal Rapid Transit or other innovative systems -- was well received by Mark Barbash, ODOD's interim director at the time. Barbash no longer is heading ODOD due to IRS tax problems that arose after Tubular Rail met with him on the 6th of May.

DC CONSIDERS GAS TAX, VMT OPTION

Lurking on the periphery of this discussion, as The Hill reports, is the notion favored by House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar (D-Minn.) that an expanded federal transportation bill should be funded by a boost in the gas tax or a "vehicle miles traveled" tax, two ideas that while they may be needed to replenish an otherwise depleted Highway Trust Fund, Republicans will hang Democrats with it if they actually become part of the bill.

Molitoris oversaw an Ohio committee that looked into the future of state transportation planning and saw a need for increasing the state gas tax as a reliable, sustainable means to fund a so-called seamless inter-modal transportation committee. A couple hours after she made the major finding of her committee public, Strickland, a gun-rights supporter, shot it down like a low flying duck at close range. The Governor took apart in a few minutes what the committee had spent months devising as their big idea for funding Ohio's transportation future.

TUBULAR RAIL IN TEXAS

Meanwhile in Pecos, Texas, Tubular Rail inventor and founder Robert Pulliam caught the attention recently of two mainstream media stations who assigned TV crews to cover the digging of a hole that the Mayor of Pecos, Richard Alligood, said could turn the small West Texas town into a "center of transportation," if Tubular Rail is on the winning end of a $20 million federal Department of Energy grant it applied for two weeks ago.

In a letter dated early June to Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn about Tubular Rail's plans to build its prototype in Pecos, Robert M. Tobias, Jr., Executive Director of the Pecos Economic Development Corporation, says his group is working in partnership with the Governor’s Office, Texas A&M, Texas Transportation Institute, TXDOT and other state and regional partners "to bring these types of projects to fruition." News reports said 150 jobs could come to Pecos if TR technology takes off. In a related story, ODOD told TR officials it is ready to help the company build a supply chain of Ohio manufacturers, who stand to benefit should the DOE grant for energy projects that "disrupt the status quo" find its funding footing.

Tobias correctly notes that having the research funds to test this technology "is an integral component of moving this opportunity forward." Continuing, he says the recent announcement by President Obama on making funds available to transportation projects of this type "could serve as the impetus" to TR technology rising from the scrub brush landscape of the test-track facility located close by. "Therefore, your support and assistance in connecting this transportation project to research funding is greatly appreciated," Tobias told a staffer in Sen. Cornyn's office.

Watch the reports here:
CBS 7 West Texas, Midland-Odessa
http://www.cbs7.com/news/details.asp?ID=12513

NBC 9 West Texas, MIdland-Odessa
http://www.kwes.com/global/category.asp?c=163304&clipId=&topVideoCatNo=121765&topVideoCatNoB=83259&topVideoCatNoC=83262&topVideoCatNoD=138849&topVideoCatNoE=124443&clipId=3824569&topVideoCatNo=121765&autoStart=true

As Ohio's political range war rages over whether Strickland let Dayton-based National Cash Register be lured to Georgia or whether the company's move was already a done deal, Ohio officials know that companies, by and large, are not beating a path to their door despite Strickland's cryptic comments today about landing one that will bring jobs here. Accordingly, state officials ought to consider all comers, like Tubular Rail, and consider what its advanced train technology can do for the state's future, instead of being stuck in the past of status quo technology that will only lead us back to the past even as we move forward in time.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Tubular Rail, the Valley of Death and Helping a Hurt Ohio

Tubular Rail, the Valley of Death and Helping a Hurt Ohio

"Trackless Train" Company Wins State Support for Ohio Supply Chain in Bid for DOE Energy Funds

TR technology as Cool as "Making a Rock Float."

by John Michael Spinelli

June 2, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Officials from Tubular Rail, the "trackless train" company from Texas, had reason to smile last week. After eights months of seeking an audience with Gov. Ted Strickland's development staff to introduce them to the company's patented technology that reorganizes the essential elements of conventional railroads by eliminating the need for tracks or bridges, a letter of general support from Ohio was issued that signaled state officials are ready to help the company build an Ohio supply chain for both its transformational prototype and for the next generation of trains it believes will become the fourth transportation industry, after trains, cars and planes, that promises to become a new standard for America and the world.

With the understanding that "a significant portion of the components for both the demonstration and commercial system can be sourced in Ohio," StevenSchoeny, Director, Strategic Business Investment Division, affixed his name to a letter than informed company officials that "the Ohio Department of Development is prepared to work with Tubular Rail and your suppliers in Ohio to take advantage of Ohio's economic development programs to build your supply chain capacity."

The announcement Monday by General Motors that it was entering bankruptcy court where it will reinvent itself in a final turnaround effort to remain a viable auto-manufacturer in the U.S, makes the hunt for new jobs that much more compelling. Ohio has everything to gain and nothing to lose from taking an interest in the birth and development of a new industry, as Tubular Rail thinks of itself.

Combining GM's announcement yesterday that its future reorganization plans will cost Ohio another 1,000 jobs with Tuesday's announcement by NCR that it will relocate its headquarters from Dayton to Georgia, taking about 1,300 jobs with it, and adding it to the dour backdrop that more than 300,000 jobs have been lost on the watch of Gov. Ted Strickland, elected in 2006 on the campaign promise to turnaround Ohio, solidifies the expectation that the state's unemployment, now above 10 percent, will continue to tick upwards.

And now that John Kasich, a former Ohio Congressman and investment banker, has declared he will challenge Strickland in 2010 and whose campaign slogan is "A New Way, A New Day," the race is on to see which man can best restore jobs and prosperity to a once mighty industrial state bobbing in a sea of red ink.

GM's bitter-sweet news makes Ohio's rough road to recover even rougher. The Hobson's Choice now, exacerbated by an imploding economy that has triggered a range war in Columbus over how to balance the budget by the next fiscal year, which starts June 11, pits Democrats, who want to fill a current and growing budget gap with billions in one-time stimulus funds, and Senate Republicans, who are ready to wield a big ax and lop off even more state-funded programs, better syncing future state expenditures with expected shrinking revenues.

Amid this economic turmoil in Ohio, Tubular Rail has submitted an application to the federal Dept. of Energy, Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy, which is offering up to $20 million per project for new energy ideas that are so "transformational" they will "disrupt the status quo" so much that a new industry standard will emerge.

From the DOE grant guidelines: "Often, a technology is considered transformational when it so outperforms current approaches that it causes an industry to shift its technology base to the new technology. The Nation needs transformational energy-related technologies to overcome the threats posed by climate change and energy security, arising from its reliance on traditional uses of fossil fuels and the dominant use of oil in transportation."

With their Ohio letter in hand, company officials added the Buckeye State to the list of team members located in Texas and Ohio that it hopes will catch the eye of DOE grant staff.
If Tubular Rail is passed through to the next round of the , when a full 150-page application will be completed,

"This project effectively creates a 'fourth form' of transportation, one that will have the impact today that the locomotive, Model T and Kitty Hawk had in their day," according to Robert Pulliam, inventor of TR technology and president of the company.

Pulliam, born and raised in Detroit but now residing in Houston, Texas, said the two mile prototype system will be proof-positive that a new "Green" industry addressing Green House Gas emissions, oil imports, infrastructure costs and job creation is upon us.

Tubular Rail's goal, according to Pulliam, is to build a transportation system that reduces the cost of installation and the affect of infrastructure impact, yet achieves the energy efficiencies inherent in steel railway systems.

Pulliam said the "Pecos Project" will be a full-scale operating system to test and prove all components, reconfiguring the essential functional elements of the rail-bed and train. It reverses orientation of steel rail and steel wheel by ingeniously putting the rails on the car and propulsion on the supports or O-Ring stanchions.

The stated goal of the program is to take an "immature technology that promises to make a large impact on the ARPA-E Mission areas...and develop it beyond the 'valley of death' that prevents many transformational new technologies from becoming a market reality."

As stated in its grant guidelines, DOE's goal is to provide funding such that a company like Tubular Rail, which already has preliminary engineering and patents in hand, can overcome the later phase of the "valley of death" by funding the technology (component, system, hardware, software, or other) that must be matured to the point that it can transition into industrial development and deployment.

The Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, which performed work for Tubular Rail, contrasted and compared TR technology with current convention railroad technology. "We strongly believe in the spirit of Tubular Rail and would like to see the project receive funding soon," theThayer report concluded. It added, "An improvement upon conventional technology is necessary because existing technologies for high-speed and urban transit are expensive, difficult to build through populated areas, and more environmentally unfriendly. In summary the basic advantages of Tubular are an initial investment 54 percent less than the competition,operations 450 percent more efficient than conventional technology and emits 35 percent less CO2 than other forms of transportation." Simply put,Thayer said "Tubular Rail is a viable option for the future of the rail industry".

What does all this mean for Ohio? Jobs, jobs, jobs. Ohio, by agreeing to have its name added to TR's list of potential partners, puts itself in a prime position to seize the day on the birth and development of a new transportation industry. Although TR's prototype will be built in Texas, Ohio can still be home to another Wright Brother's Kitty Hawk moment, TR's 1st commercial passenger.

With daily announcements of job losses battering the spirit of state leaders, workers, their family and friends and the communities they live in, any lift Tubular Rail can give to the Birthplace of Aviation should befacilitated no matter the cost. But helping TR out means state leaders and the citizenry at large need to re-think how they think about rail. Locomotive engines guided by tracks in the ground have been around for a long time. But the new paradigm, as invented by Mr. Pulliam, takes those relationships apart and puts them back together differently, but uses readily available technologies.

Frank Sonzala, a TR board member from San Antonio who is also a proven entrepreneur and patent holder, says the simple concept behind the company's game-changing technology is tantamount to "making a rock float." With Ohio sinking like a rock, it's letter of support is one small step for a state sinking beneath the waves of the Great Recession, but one giant step for Tubular Rail.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

New Credit Card Rules Could Stop Sucker Syndrome

New Credit Card Rules Could Stop Sucker Syndrome

Trips and Traps Business Model for Plastic Vendors

Personal Responsibility Works With Disclosure, Certainty

by John Michael Spinelli

May 20, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: As the Obama Administration attempts to re-float the U.S.S America, through massive injections of federal largess that will be foisted on future generations as pay-back punishment for the disastrous financial policies employed by the Minister from Midland, a hint at whether their financial skills will be up to the task could be seen soon, as America retools its credit card laws and one Ohio school system realizes equipping young Buckeyes with financial knowledge will better prepare them to enter the sea of financial sharks without being eaten alive.

To understand the deceitful, ever-changing world credit card companies have been allowed to build that places consumers on a game board rigged with financial rapids that bring them great profit while impaling individuals and families with protean rates operating in league with shifting fees, listen to how Harvard law professor Elizabeth Warren describes to Bill Maher the lawful ability lenders of plastic have to put consumers behind the Eight Ball with little chance of escaping in tack.

Warren, who is also known as the "TARP Queen" because she chairs the panel that oversees the Trouble Asset Relief Program, which was set up by Bush Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson who asked for a blank check for hundreds of billions of dollars to bailout Wall Street banks infected by subprime loan securities, says credit card companies make billions by setting "tricks and traps" for consumers, who whether they know it or not, fall prey to the cruel consequences spelled out in their small-print agreements.

But hope is on the way in the form of new credit card laws that, if passed by Congress and signed by President Obama, would protect consumers from sudden increases in interest rates and curtain that one study performed by the Pew Safe Credit Cards Project said "current credit-card practices place American cardholders at risk of sudden, potentially drastic price increases, which can seriously impair a household's stability and spending power."

In a related story Tuesday, the Cincinnati Public Schools announced students from kindergarten through grade 12 will be taught financial education, in compliance with a new Ohio graduation requirement mandate that high school students, starting with the 2009-10 academic year, study personal financeas part of a curriculum that school superintendent Mary Ronan said will "graduate well-rounded students who know how to thrive amind financial challenges."

The Cincinnati-centric Business Courier reported that 25 percent of American homeowners have no savings to cover living expenses if they lose their job. Taken from a a quarterly survey performed by the Wells Fargo & Co, the study says 34 percent of homeowners have "had family or friends move in with them" and that 43 percent "think about their debt every day" while 36 percent say "they're cutting back on small expenditures, such as dining out, buying clcothes an gifts for friends."

Concerned about their members' financial aptitude as much as the CPS is about training their young students minds to know a good deal from a bad one, the American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees is offering a free one-hour online class, or Webinar, through Union Plus, that will help members avoid credit card fees, understand their credit score and ow to read a credit report, among other topics.

It's never too late to wise up, but full disclosure and certainty are keys to consumers exercising their personal responsibility. You remember personal responsibility, don't you? It was used by banks and credit card companies to shift the blame of deep debt to people who didn't know the rules because the rules were ever changing, at the whim of the companies who extended credit to anyone with a pulse but then shackled them in handcuffs of repayment terms that essentially sentenced them to a debtors prison without bars.

Business advocates have long said that all business wants is "certainty" about the future so they can plan accordingly. The same demand can be used by consumers, who without access to affordable, clear and reasonable credit terms cannot perform as the loyal consumers the economy needs to grow.

Turning the tables on credit card companies seems only fair. Personal responsibility is great as long as the rules and options are clear for everyone. If "Apples to Apples" comparison is good for electric and gas rates, then it ought to apply to credit card companies and all lenders too. An informed populace is a wise populace. Playing Three Card Monty with a stacked deck is inherently unfair and only rewards deception.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Happy Days Are (Still) Not Here Again

Happy Days Are (Still) Not Here Again

Ohio Among 10 Lowest States on U.S. Well-Being Index

by John Michael Spinelli

May 13, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Only Mississippi, Kentucky and West Virginia ranked lower than Ohio on a national well-being index that not only considered absence of infirmity and disease but also a state of physical, mental and social well-being.

Performed by the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, the first and largest survey of its kind, with 1,000 calls a day, seven days a week, Ohio ranked 47th among the nation's 50 states on six sub-indices including life evaluation, emotional health, physical health, healthy behavior, work environment and basic access.

The top 10 states ranged from #1 Utah to #10 Arizona. The report showed a clear pattern of higher well-being states located primarily in the West and lower well-being states in the Midwest and the South.

The Web site of The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index™, an alliance with America's Health Insurance Plans, says it has been developed to "provide the official measure for health and well-being. It's the voice of Americans and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good life."

Of Ohio's 18 Congressional Districts, District #08 (John Boehner,R), #12 (Pat Tiberi, R) and #14 (Steve LaTourette, R)ranked in the middle 20 percent.

Districts one level down from the middle 20 percent were #05 (Bob Latta, R), #16 John Boccieri, D), #15 (Mary Jane Kilroy, D) and #02 (Jean Schmidt, R)).

At the bottom were #09 (Marcy Kaptur, D), #13 (Betty Sutton, D), #10 (Dennis Kucinich, D), #11 (Marcia Fudge, D), #17 (Tim Ryan, D), #04 (Jim Jordan, R), #18 (Zack Space, D), #06 (Charlie Wilson,D), #07 (Steve Austria, R), #03 (Mike Turner, R), and #01 (Steve Driehaus, D).

But are these rankings any wonder, given the loss of 269,000 more jobs in the past 15 months, which has produced the highest unemployment rate in 25 years (9.7%)? With more than one in 10 Ohioans receiving food stamps and with more than one-third of Ohio's schoolchildren now qualifying for the federal lunch program and Ohio's food pantries with more hungry mouths than they have food to feed, the well-being of Ohioans is in deep trouble.

Coinciding with this gloomy news were reports that seven companies in business in Ohio plan to eliminate another 2,300 jobs at plants in more than a dozen locations. Moribund auto sales were credited for the job losses.

Keith Ewald of the Ohio Bureau of Labor Market Information said in a published report the number of unemployed Ohioans is now 577,500, up nearly 200,000 from a year ago.

Ewald, who said the "job market will likely be one of the last parts of the economy to recover," was joined in his dark prognostication by James Newton, chief economic adviser for Commerce National Bank in Columbus, who said, "Job markets are going to be horrible for quite some time."

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Budget Battle Leads to More OhiWoe

Budget Battle Leads to More OhiWoe

Ohio Poll Shows 46% of Ohioans Fear American Dream May Fail Next Generation

by John Michael Spinelli

May 11, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: With fewer than 50 days left for a split General Assembly and Governor to hammer out a budget they can both agree on, the news last week that figures for the current fiscal year could be as much as $900 million more out of whack due to plummeting tax hauls was tantamount to pouring more salt into an already gaping wound.

Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland, the first of his political ilk to hold that office since Republicans dominated it starting in the early 1990s, has had to trim state spending three times to the tune of about $2 billion in his first three years, due to an economy that was already failing fast when he won the office in 2006, and is falling further and faster with little expectations for recovery anytime soon. The Ohio Constitution requires a two-year balanced budget effective July 1st.

Strickland has stuck to his story that Ohio's woes are the result of a national economy gone sour, due in large measure to reckless management by former president George W. Bush and a Republican-led Congress that turned a blind eye to their leader's flagrant spending on the war in Iraq and his staunch philosophy toward business that regulating them is wrong.

But Strickland, who by one recent poll may still be popular enough to beat any Republican opponent in 2010 when he runs for relection, is taking lightning strikes from Republicans, who want to see his apple cart upended at all costs, and from Ohio media, which is less timid to assign more of the blame for a bad economy on the good governor and his budget director,, who has been lambasted for poor prognostications that fewer statehouse watchers put much faith in these days.

In a one-two punch from Ohio's Greatest Newspaper, the lead editorial in last week's Columbus Dispatch pegged Gov. Strickland and his new Democratic House of Representatives with performing a "profound disservice to the state" by ignoring reality and putting off tough decisions.

Part of Strickland's budget problems stem from his use of $7 billion in one-time federal stimulus money to patch program funding for the next two years while whistling past the graveyard of future budgets that won't have manna from heaven to rely on.

A second problem was the gamesmanship over budget numbers and forecasts used by the Ohio House to justify adding even more funding to placate social service advocates who saw their clients going without with no happy ending in sight. Adding to the mess are the happy budget forecasts Strickland received from the Legislative Service Commission that House Democrats relied on when they padded the budget and passed it to the Senatet, where Republicans rule the roost.

Further exacerbating his budget woes is the news that funding for his new education plan, a plan he said would make or break his administration in terms of being successful, was determined to be under-funded by more than $1 billion.

Republicans, who have been good at throwing brick bats at the phlegmatic governor but who have offered little in the way of realistic remedies, are as happy as pigs in mud over Strickland's plight. State Auditor Mary Taylor, the lone Republican to hold a statewide office after Democrats swept the election of 2006, estimated recently that the "structural deficit" will be as much as $4 billion in each year of the next two-year budget. But estimates are, well, estimates, and things could change, but no one can forecast with any certainty which direction change takes us in.

The paper's senior editor chided state leaders, including Strickland, House Speaker Armond Budish and Senate President Bill Harris, for not acting on the reality they can see before them. Joe Hallet said this about OhioWoe's difficult situation: "The state is bleeding jobs, 269,000 more in the past 15 months. The jobless rate is the highest in 25 years. More than one in 10 Ohioans receive food stamps. More than one-third of Ohio's schoolchildren qualify for the federal lunch program. Food pantries are overrun, and some have closed because they can't keep up with demand."

Hallett, whose paper's long tradition of siding with Republicans against Democrats and backing business over consumers, called for raising taxes, even though his paper regular demonizes the need to raise taxes on the wealthy or business in general.

While journalists are notoriously wrong about what will happen, the results of The Ohio Poll that gaged what OhiWoeans thought of the American Dream was cannily pertinent.

In a media release on whether OhioWoeans see trouble ahead, 46 percent said the next generation of working adults will be worse off economically than the current generation of workers.

"The poll found a majority of Ohioans pessimistic about their current economic conditions when compared to their parents and that a majority say the next generation will be 'worse off' than the generation working today," according to the Institute for Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati that conducted the poll this April.

Thirty percent of Ohioans, the poll showed, said their household had been impacted by job loss during the last year.

Even though Mark Zandi, economic adviser to Sen. John McCain, said on the Nightly Business Report that the Great Recession had bottomed out, Ohio's woes will not soon rebound. Not having recovered from the recession of 2001, it's a long shot that Ohio can rebound from the crippling blows of lost jobs that will continue to roll its way, especially as we watch the fate of Chrysler and General Motors, two automakers who still employ tens of thousands Ohioans each.

In a news release today from Ohio junior U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), he said a proposed Chrysler plant closing in Ohio will make him explore "all avenues to keep jobs and economic activity in Twinsburg.” Brown said he has "discussed the Twinsburg closing with administration officials and will continue to fight for federal assistance.”

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Turtle Train Problems Revealed in Public Records Request on Amtrak Study

Turtle Train Problems Revealed in Public Records Request on Amtrak Study

Ohio Media Opposes Reporting Opposing Views on Misguided Snail Rail Plan

by John Michael Spinelli

May 5, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Discouraging information contained in Amtrak's preliminary study on restoring passenger rail service between Cincinnati and Cleveland was revealed to Ohio taxpayers through a public records request, the Associated Press reported Monday.

In an AP story run in the Dayton Daily News , it was learned that a preliminary study performed by Amtrak for the Ohio Rail Development Commission (ORDC), the state agency that hired it and that manages the upgrade of thousands of miles of freight rail tracks, confirms that the time to creep along the approximately 250-mile route connecting Cleveland and Cincinnati, via Dayton and Columbus, will take six hours to complete or an hour and one-half longer than driving the distance by car.

More complications came into view with the one billion dollar plan that will take a decade or more to get up and running. It was learned that new train stations will need to be built in Cincinnati and Columbus and other potential stops where passenger trains have not run nearly a half century.

Ohio Taxpayers can only wonder where such funds will come from to build train stations in cities where budgets are already under pressure and where the idea of raising taxes to pay for them is as likely to happen as the priesthood letting a gay atheist into its ranks.

Matt Dietrich, ORDC's executive director, was as unconvincing in this story as he was in person, when he stumbled for answers to simple questions posed to him by state senators holding hearings on the recently passed state Transportation Budget. In committee, Mr. Dietrich, who runs an agency that supposedly has studied this issue for many years, had little in the way of hard facts to support his contention that bringing back slow, costly trains is both a good idea and one that can pay for itself over time.

The phrase "rough estimate," appearing again in this AP article, will go unchallenged by the Ohio Media, who by not challenging such vacuous statements will allow Mr. Dietrich and other government spokesmen to continue to hide the real financial and operational pain that once learned by Ohioans, will doom the turtle train to the past to the scrap heap of a bad idea gone worse. This juggernaut plan to squander one-time federal stimulus dollars on a train system that won't travel much faster than Civil War era trains must be stymied now so wiser, more enlightened minds can enter the debate about what train system Ohio needs that will match up in performance to the demands of the future.

If Gov. Ted Strickland thinks the turtle train to the past is the best train technology available, then he has been sorely misinformed by Dietrich and others, who should know better given their jobs descriptions and assumed expertise on issues related to rail traffic.

At a time when Ohio is looking into the great abyss of a state budget gone very sour, why are public officials like Mr. Dietrich given a free ride in the media, when strong voices that oppose the 3-C Corridor plan are ready and willing to be heard?

They are few and far between, but the (Cleveland) Plain Dealer ran an article by Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, who made the case that so-called high-speed rail isn't any solution to saving energy or reducing pollution or road congestion, as is commonly assumed. Slow train speeds like those Mr. Dietrich has acknowledged will be standard on his slow train to the past, were common 70 years ago, according to O'Toole, when cars and airplanes out competed trains of the day even then. As cars and air travel advance in design and performance, why are we stuck with 100-year old train technology when new, innovative proposals exist?

Ohio would be better served by redirecting its one-time federal stimulus dollars to advanced train technologies like Tubular Rail, which will be knocking on Ohio's development door this week, making its case for why it can revolutionize the way people and goods move from one city and region to another.

For a state that never recovered from the the job losses of the recession of 2001 and now trembles with each day's headlines, fearing the loss of even more jobs as Chrysler and General Motors meet their maker in bankruptcy court or reorganization, isn't it the perfect time to find a new industry that can create jobs, spur economic development and bring Ohio back into the 21st century?

Ohio lawmakers, who along with Gov. Strickland share the blame for allowing the 3-C Corridor Plan to live on, should not allow Mr. Dietrich and Transportation Director Jolene Molitoris to go unchallenged, as they blindly push to embrace out dated train technology. By their own admission, their turtle train to the past will cost a minimum of $10 million per year in public subsidies. But those are just "rough estimates" that will probably pale in comparison to the real figures from real bids when they come in. With more straight talk about the underlying realities and costs associated with the 3-C Corridor train, maybe that day will never arrive.

Should that day arrive, Ohioans will follow in the footsteps of Floridians who after learning in 2004 that the system costs quoted to them to get their vote in 2000 were double what they were sold, reversed themselves and directed their state leaders to stop pursuing plans for high-speed rail. A similar move to turn the train around is underway in California, where a nearly $10 billion state bond fund to pay for one-quarter of that state's proposed high-speed rail is already entering massive obstacles from communities who are suing the train authority over routes because they don't want it running through their towns.

One reporter from the United Kingdom who knows about high-speed trains and who has taken an analytical view of President Obama's puny plan for rail development here, says the real costs American taxpayers will have to fork over will be crippling, especially for a country where the word tax has been demonized.

Gabriella Gurley, writing for the online edition of The Guardian, knows the lack of appetite Americans have to paying more taxes. "But moving a tax-adverse country toward this vision demands a massive attitude shift," she writes, adding that "Down payments may look good, but Americans have had trouble paying off balances" and "With other pricey domestic headaches like healthcare looming large on his fast-moving agenda, how much political capital is Obama is willing to spend to get America into training?"

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Drive-Thru Bankruptcy Court Next Stop for Chrysler

Drive-Thru Bankruptcy Court Next Stop for Chrysler

Junior Ohio Senator Likens Plant Closings to Natural Disasters

by John Michael Spinelli

May 1, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: President Barack Obama, on his 101th day in office, announced that Chrysler, the third largest of Detroit's Big Three automakers, would pull into in the drive-thru lane of bankruptcy court where it could emerge in a few as two months with a new driver at the wheel, and new partners in the form of autoworkers and the federal government.

While the president painted a picture of time spent in bankruptcy court as one serious step along a path towards healing, he also scolded a small group of hedge fund debt holders for not compromising like everyone else had. Mr. Obama said he "stood with" United Auto Workers and their families and other debtors, and against those who held about 35 percent of Chrysler's approximately $6.9 billion in secured debt.

Speaking sternly to them in Washington surrounding by an entourage of supporters, Mr. Obama announcement means those who sought to exact a greater return on the trade out of debt for equity will now have to fight it out before a yet-to-be named bankruptcy judge, who may or may not look kindly on their stubbornness at a time when the fate of Chrysler hung in the balance.

Mr. Obama said it was unacceptable to let a small group of investors jeopardize the future of the company.

In Ohio, hard hit by auto industry job losses, the announcement was not openly welcomed by the Buckeye State's junior senator.

Sherrod Brown, a first-term senator from 2006 who spent years as a Congressman representing a northeast Ohio district where auto-related manufacturing was strong, said in a written statement that he was "disappointed that Chrysler bondholders were not willing to compromise and avoid bankruptcy."

The former Ohio Secretary of State whose state unemployment rate is 9.7, said he saw it as a "setback for auto workers, auto retirees, and auto parts suppliers" and said his "thoughts are with workers at the Jeep assembly facility in Toledo and all the other employees at suppliers and dealers elsewhere who may be affected."

Published reports say Chrysler spokesman Max Gates confirmed that all U.S. manufacturing facilities will stop production beginning Monday and be idle for 30 to 60 days or until Chapter 11 proceedings are worked out. Gates also said in the report that it is also possible that the downtime could vary from plant to plant, but that a shutdown schedule won't be known for awhile.

About 3,200 Toledo-area Chrysler workers will be idled - about 1,700 at Toledo Jeep Assembly, 1,300 at Toledo Machining in Perrysburg Township, and 190 at the Global Engine Manufacturing Alliance plant in Dundee, Mich, The (Toledo) Blade reported Friday. An estimated 3,000 other workers at area suppliers also are likely to be laid off.

"Auto communities need targeted and timely assistance from the federal government," Brown wrote, adding, "A major plant closing is an economic disaster and the federal government needs to treat it with the same level of response we give to natural disasters."

Brown's media release said more than 440,000 Ohio jobs directly or indirectly depend on the auto industry, and that auto suppliers directly account for nearly 100,000 Ohio jobs.

Covering the story for the Associated Press , Stephen Manning and Tom Krishner noted that Fiat, an Italian car maker who a few years back had a turnaround of its own under its own CEO, Sergio Marchionne, would claim about 20 percent of the company as a starting level, with greater ownership coming in future years, in exchange for bringing its fuel-efficient and lower-emission technology to the American marketplace.

Mixed into the announcement Thursday was the news that Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli would depart after Chrysler's drive-thru bankruptcy was over. Unlike Rick Wagoner, long-time CEO of General Motors who became a casualty of that company's deal to accept money from Washington but who departed with more than $20 million retirement package, Nardelli won't be handed a so-called golden parachute, but will rejoin Cerebus, the private equity group that purchased Chrysler.

With Fiat now in the picture, the hope is Chrysler, which has had problems in the past and some say was too slow to adapt to the future, will reinvent itself by offering cars featuring the Italian automakers "cutting edge technology." Fiat has not faired well in America, but the small-car company now have a special chance to show Americans, who took to big cars, vans and SUVs because fuel was inexpensive, they can deliver trustworthy, fuel-efficient cars Americans want to buy.

Mr. Obama, who has been criticized mainly by Republicans for investing taxpayer dollars in a company they thought should go out of business, said Chrysler could not continue to limp along on an "endless supply of tax dollar." Thirty days after a plan for reorganization was submitted and turned down, Mr. Obama noted with pride that "seemingly insurmountable obstacles have been over come." When it's all over, Mr. Obama said he believes Chrysler will emerge stronger and more competitive.

Sen. Brown, while not elated with the news, said he will continue to work to reassure potential car buyers, and hopes Chrysler's new lease on life will "create new demand in the auto industry," a factor he deemed critical to "getting our auto industry back on track."

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com

Will Lack of Curiosity Doom Ohio to Turtle Train Technology?

Will Lack of Curiosity Doom Ohio to Turtle Train Technology?

Senators, Representatives Express Curiosity in Tubular Rail

" Trackless Train" Company to Meet with Development Officials to Talk Jobs, Economic Development

by John Michael Spinelli

April 30, 2009

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Curiosity, it's long been said, killed the cat. But can lack of curiosity kill a state? For a state like Ohio, where legendary inventor heroes like Orville and Wilbur Wright and Thomas Alva Edison were born, believing the train technology of 1934, when the Burlington Zephyr, the first Diesel-electric streamliner in the US, topped out at 112 mph on a dawn to dusk run between Denver and Chicago, is as good as it gets does not bode well for its future.

Why would a state who says they champion innovation and name programs after the Wrights and Edison want to squander a billion or more dollars on a slow, costly system built on train-museum-era locomotives that even in 2010, when the first train may crawl out of hibernation to cross the state diagonally for the first time in 41 years, average 20 mph less than the Zephyr did on its historic run during our Great Depression?

It's a question that needs to be asked. Given Ohio's rhetoric on innovation and funding schemes designed to court the most innovative advancements in all industries, why is transportation reform such a taboo subject?

What state would want to broadcast to the world that it's stuck in the past when it comes to energy, education, medicine, information or any other industry for that matter? But that position, blindly defending old technology, is exactly what Gov. Strickland and his Transportation Director, Jolene Molitoris, are doing by refusing to consider any train technology that doesn't look, sound or perform like railroads from days of yore.

But a growing chorus of state senators who know the proposal to fund a train to the past, as many say the 3-C Corridor proposal is, is a bad idea at a bad time are penning letters of curiosity in anticipation of a meeting next week between Tubular Rail and state development officials is a no cost, no obligation query that should challenge the status quo on how we think about train technology.

Robert Pulliam, inventor and founder of Tubular Rail , based in Houston, Texas, will arrive in Columbus next week to make his case for why his patented technology, featured in the Discovery Channel show called "FutureTrains," can create manufacturing jobs and spur economic development while transporting people and goods in new ways.

As one connected statehouse insider said recently, if the state is going to spend all this money, shouldn't we at least buy something that's fast? By its own admission, the 3-C Corridor or Turtle Train, will only average 57 mph, a pathetic pace that will take longer than driving from Cleveland to Cincinnati, via Columbus and Dayton, and will leave passengers to fend for themselves once they reach their destination.

Sens. Jason Wilson (D-30th), ,Tim Grendell (R-18th) and Karen Gillmor (R-26th) have expressed their curiosity about Tubular Rail in a letter to Mark Barbash, Interim director of the Ohio Department of Development.

Verbal commitments for similar letters have been received from Sens. Fred Strahorn (D-5th), Robert Schuler (R-7th), John Carey (R-17th), Ray Miller (D-15th) and Tim Schaffer (R-31st) and Reps. Bob Hagan (D-60th) and Todd Book (D-89th). The bi-partisan lineup of senators and representatives curious about Tubular Rail's technology shows the bi-partisan nature of the need to reform transportation.

Sen. Gillmor, of Tiffin, has already written an article on why Ohio isn't likely to see so-called high-speed trains, like are common in Europe, here anytime soon. In her article, she says the proposal for a publicly subsidized passenger rail system is "undercooked" and missing many details that "confirm a rail system is needed or supported by the taxpayers who would foot the bill."

What we do know, she writes, is that officials say the system would cost $250 million to launch and require a state subsidy of $10 million each year. Continuing, she notes that, based on studies conducted by the Ohio Rail Commission in 2004 and 2007, "the system would likely cost be between $1 billion and $1.3 billion after adjusting for inflation and only run "at speeds of up to 69 miles per hour along existing freight tracks," a speed that is "unlikely to be much faster than highway travel."

Gillmor and other members of the General Assembly who are asking development officials to be as curious about Tubular Rail as they are, are in line with the campaign goals of Transportation for America, a coalition of housing, environmental, public health, urban planning, transportation, equitable development and other organizations who say Americans need transportation options that are "cheaper, faster and cleaner" than the current system of transportation they say leave "too many older, younger and rural Americans stranded."

Ohio needs to be future-ready. By developing and employing a new, energy efficient train transportation system that could reduce road congestion, travel fast, go places where conventional railroads cannot, and be built by Ohio manufacturers, Buckeyes can stake a claim on their future without waiting for some other state, or country, to do the heavy lifting first.

Being a leader means doing something first. Ohio, who has yet to walk away from its reputation as a "rust-belt" state and who frets each day that more more layoffs from automakers will further complicate its already shaky budget picture, should spend a little time, and maybe even a few funds to see of Tubular Rail technology is all Mr. Pulliam and others say it is.

The Wright thing to do is be curious. Gov. Strickland and Director Molitoris would do well to be more curious. Lack of curiosity could kill the state.

John Michael Spinelli is a Certified Economic Development Financing Professional, business and travel writer and former credentialed Ohio Statehouse political reporter. He is registered to lobby in Ohio and is the Director of Ohio Operations for Tubular Rail Inc. To send a tip or comment, email ohionewsbureau@gmail.com