Published Thursday, March 3, 2005, in the Sacramento Bee

Hybrid car pool waiver passes panel
Giant transportation bill could face House floor vote next week.

By David Whitney
Bee Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Make room, car poolers. Congress is rushing to squeeze
solo drivers of gas-sipping hybrid cars into your diamond lanes.

The House Transportation Committee on Thursday approved a $284
billion highway bill that would include the waiver California needs
under a state law that took effect Jan. 1 to open the HOV lanes to
hybrid cars rated at least 45 miles per gallon.

The House committee's action sends the massive public works bill to
the House floor, perhaps as early as next week. The Senate has yet to
begin work on its version of the measure, but both chambers are under
pressure to act before May 30, when the current law runs out just as
the summer construction season is beginning.

The state Legislature approved a law last year to open HOV -- high-
occupancy vehicle -- lanes to single-occupant hybrid cars as a way to
encourage their purchase. The measure needs a federal waiver to give
it authority for the car pool lanes in freeways, which are federally
funded and managed.

Honda and Toyota dealers promoted the perk to commuters because
Insight, Civic Hybrid and Prius cars that operate partly on battery
power to boost gasoline mileage will qualify when the waiver takes
effect.

But last year a highway bill containing the waiver came careening
to a halt when the House and Senate could not come to terms on an
election-year package that President Bush would sign into law.

Now Bush has backed the spending level contained in the House
version, raising prospects considerably that a deal will be worked
out with the Senate before summer.

If that happens, California could get its waiver for hybrid cars
just as Virginia, the only state that now lets them onto freeway
car pool lanes, is considering early termination of its program.

Virginia transportation officials said this week that so many
commuters have turned to hybrid cars to get a free pass on the HOV
lanes that they are now too crowded and no longer the boon to car
pooling they used to be.

That could worsen considerably if Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks,
and Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, have their way.

They've introduced legislation that would permit a wider range of
high-efficiency cars and trucks, including hybrid sport-utility
vehicles, to get the single-occupant pass onto HOV lanes.

"States ought to have the right to let all of them in, if they
would like to," Sherman said in an interview.

But Sherman also foresees the problem of too many hybrids in the
restricted lanes. Interstate 405 in the Los Angeles area is one that
probably shouldn't allow any single-occupant cars onto its already
overcrowded diamond lanes, Sherman said, adding that he doesn't think
the House provision gives California the flexibility to exclude
freeways on a case-by-case basis.

Sherman and Issa have powerful lobbying friends behind them. The
Alliance for Automobile Manufacturers will be pressing to scuttle
the 45-miles-per-gallon threshold.

"Our position is that this should be opened to a range of
advanced technology vehicles," said alliance spokeswoman Gloria
Bergquist. "The government should not be picking winners and losers."

It's going to be a tough sell to House Transportation Committee
leaders, however.

Asked whether the panel's chairman, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska,
would go along with any expansion of the waiver program, committee
spokesman Steve Hansen said tersely: "The bill speaks for itself."

Coming at a time when federal spending on many domestic programs
is facing cutbacks, the highway bill, financed by federal gasoline
taxes, is expanding.

"The American people deserve solutions to the problems of congestion,
crumbling roads and delayed shipments of freight," Young said.

Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, a senior Democrat who helped write
the highway bill, said it might be "the most important piece of
legislation in this Congress."

In California, the measure represents tens of billions of dollars
in annual spending over the next six years for highways, rail
improvements, rapid transit and a host of other transportation-
related work.

Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-Alamo, said the bill would mean $270 million
in transportation funding for the Bay Area alone, and some 180,000
construction jobs statewide.

But California also has argued that the formulas for distributing
money under the law are not favorable to the state, which pays more
in gasoline taxes than it receives in benefits. At Wednesday's
committee session, leaders said the distribution formulas are still
being worked out.

But it was clear from the discussion that states that do well are
not going to give in easily to those that don't.

For the Sacramento area, the measure authorizes light-rail extensions
to Cosumnes River College and Sacramento International Airport, and
a rail line extension to Auburn for Amtrak service.

In addition, it contains more than $30 million worth of earmarked
construction work, including about $7 million for an intermodal
transportation center near the downtown Sacramento train station,
$7 million for Folsom Boulevard improvements in Rancho Cordova and
a handful of smaller projects.


The Bee's David Whitney can be reached at (202) 383-0004 or
dwhitney@...


[BATN: See also:

Editorial: Time to end Virginia's hybrid HOV lane perk
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22378

SOV hybrids jam Virginia HOV lanes; carpoolers irked
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22142

Letter: Dumb Hybrid HOV lane perk counter-productive
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22139

Editorial: Hybrids-in-HOV-lanes bill stuck in legal jam
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22121

Hybrid-HOV-lane bill stalled -- Congress must approve
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22038

Bill to let SOV hybrids clog HOV lanes stalled
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/22037

Stupid hybrids-in-HOV-lanes law awaits federal action
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BATN/message/21683 ]