Everything the US moves around needs diesel fuel to power the trucks, trains, & boats: food, goods, crops, commodities, everything. Oil products powers ~90% of US transport. It's why we should electrify transport as a national security imperative: to reduce the risk of price shocks to the economy.
#EVs are a critical grid reliability and electricity affordability solution. New @latimes.com opinion piece calls for #EV investments to deliver benefits. #CALeg, @assemblydems.bsky.social, @casendems.bsky.social, use the budget to invest in EV car and truck incentives! #InvestInCleanAir
* U.S. JUDGE RULES TRUMP ADMINISTRATION UNLAWFULLY SOUGHT TO UNDO NEW YORK'S MANHATTAN CONGESTION PRICING PROGRAM
@reuters.com
As the guy who wrote the book on zoning abolition, I'd like to go on record as saying: if you can use zoning to stop the concentration camps, fucking go for it.
And also yelling repeatedly that public transit is unsafe, exactly what you hope to see from a federal transit official
He'll be remembered for his accomplishments, such as "being an administrator"
Thank you, @dorismatsui.bsky.social, for standing up for strong fuel-economy standards that save families money, cut pollution, and reduce oil dependence. Clean transportation is affordable transportation. #CleanerCars #RouteZero
💰🚗For more than a half century, fuel efficiency standards have saved US drivers money. How much money? TRILLIONS. Fuel efficient vehicles mean less expensive trips to the gas pump and more money for education, for family outings, for groceries. (🧵👇)
I didn't put this in the piece because I wanted to keep the focus on what Duffy has done as secretary (those remarks date to his time as Fox News talking head).
But it just reinforces the extent to which authoritarianism is a whole-of-government project for this administration.
Another fact underscoring the descent of USDOT: Elaine Chao (Trump 1 transpo secretary) resigned in protest after the January 6 attacks.
Sean Duffy described the 1/6 insurrectionists as people "peacefully walking, giving themselves a tour of the Capitol." www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox...
"Nobody feels like it's safe to ride the public transport, the buses, the light rail" because federal agents are stalking transit stops.
"We shouldn’t have to worry if we’re going to have guns pulled on us on the way to work at all, but this is our reality.”
www.youtube.com/shorts/b9Rnd...
Can't stress enough that no arm of any GOP-controlled governing body is actively at work doing anything to improve the lives of Americans. Even the typically staid and bipartisan USDoT has been transformed into an instrument of self-dealing and revenge.
newrepublic.com/article/2051...
Interesting finding - another reminder that transportation is a network and a change in one link has wide-ranging ripples. And underscores how parochialism is the death of good transportation - politicians all want projects in "their" district but that's often not what brings the most benefit.
Political scientists have a term for how Trump governs: “Competitive authoritarianism.” Like Hungary under Orbán, he was elected but uses the gov't to abuse the law. trib.al/hY3VbAW
The DOT is usually immune from this partisanship. Instead, they're using it to advance Trump’s authoritarian agenda.
And let me also note how good it felt to be in DC earlier this month as part of the Crossroads Convening, where transportation researchers and my @ucs.org colleagues came together to share some of the research that's been sidelined as part of this administration's attacks bsky.app/profile/gret...
NYC Mayor Mamdani and NY Governor Hochul, in different ways, show the potential for transportation to energize a more hopeful politics. The weaponization of USDOT is one of the worst things I've seen in my transportation career. But there is a way out. Read more: newrepublic.com/article/2051...
Luckily, courts and state attorneys general have turned back many of these attacks. And when states raise their own transportation funding–as New York has with congestion pricing and as Illinois did last fall–they can insulate themselves from some of the fallout.
As Yonah points out, USDOT is failing to advance its core responsibilities. But it’s actually much worse than Duffy focusing on pajamas - he is focused on punishing the president’s rivals. And a DOT focused on persecuting foes is not focused on improving lives.
bsky.app/profile/yona...
Bizarrely, some politicians have praised Duffy as “not as bad as the other Trump secretaries.” (www.politico.com/news/2026/01...) What’s clear to me is that he has taken USDOT to one of the darkest places in its history.
This is a dark turn. Even during Trump’s first term, USDOT was “an island of normalcy,” to quote one analyst. Secretary Elaine Chao did normal DOT things like celebrating grants in both red and blue states. Duffy issues partisan statements blasting a Democratic governor seemingly every week.
Duffy has been a loyal henchman in Trump’s authoritarian push. He’s tried to enlist the Transportation Department in immigration crackdowns, used its grants to support election denial, and stoked division by canceling equity-focused research and blasting blue-state transit projects as woke.
Why is the Dept of Transportation trying to torpedo NYC congestion pricing? Why - in God’s name - is Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on TV smearing the Minnesotans killed by ICE? For @newrepublic.com, I show Trump has turned USDOT into an authoritarian weapon. newrepublic.com/article/2051...
"Non-violent tactics that waste a company’s time or money are really effective. For Enterprise, we’ve made and cancelled car reservations, saying the roads are too icy. At Home Depot... people [lined] up to buy ice scrapers and then getting in line to return them, in a way that clogs the lines."
The Crossroads conference is tomorrow in DC - I'll be there and hope to see you as well. The transportation equity research the world needs to hear and #TRBAM doesn't want you to see ;)
Times are a changing here in CT. The land "East of the River" (That being the Connecticut River which bisects the state flowing from north to south) is seeing a surge in new long overdue housing projects that rivals far wealthier and far more in demand parts of CT
www.ctinsider.com/journalinqui...
Tunku Varadarajan: Will you ask New Yorkers who voted for you to give Zohran Mamdani a chance? Curtis Sliwa: Absolutely. He won a majority. He has a mandate. The Masters of the Universe, the billionaires, did everything they could to make sure he wasn't the mayor. It didn't work. He's a great organizer. I'll give you an example: Melinda Katz, the current District Attorney for Queens County, New York. She's the mother of my two youngest sons. She was running for DA in 2019. She had the institutional support. Moderate Jewish mother. Loyal Democrat. Queens borough president. Perfect résumé. She's running against Tiffany Caban, who wasn't even in elective office at that time. Very radical. You know, "do away with jails, don't arrest anyone." Tiffany Caban won on election night. But she lost the race on the absentee ballots, but only by about 20 votes. You know who the street organizer was for Tiffany Caban? Zohran Mamdani. So, when they talk about him as a trust fund baby, I say no, no, no, no, no.
You don't like it when people call him a "nepo baby." He's earned his stripes. He had 100,000 volunteers going door-to-door, and I experienced that in some of the neighborhoods where you would never have seen anybody liberal or progressive go. Howard Beach! In conservative Howard Beach, they're going block to block. They were everywhere. 100,000. I call them Zohranistas. This was the secret to his election, not TikTok. It was good, old-fashioned retail politics. Frankly, Cuomo and not Mamdani was the nepo baby in this race. Born on third base. Felt entitled. Knew the political process, but mailed it in. He didn't have the stomach to actually go out and do retail politics. And shame on him. Do you think Mamdani will make a better mayor than Andrew Cuomo might have done?
![How would you describe Mamdani's politics?
He's not a communist. People call him that. That's ridiculous. He is a democratic socialist. David Dinkins [New York mayor from 1990-93] was a democratic socialist. We've had a long history in New York City of socialism.
What's the biggest challenge Mamdani faces as mayor!
I don't think the Zohranistas totally understand the fiscal irresponsibility we just went through with the Adams years and how little money there's left.
There's not enough money to do all the things that Zohran wants to do.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:ssxnmhdtz6le6nxu7jfhglz6/bafkreic7pxra6vmrjmqo4jmw4vdagiluj6xtkovqb3f4ex7fc55m7pzaxu)
How would you describe Mamdani's politics? He's not a communist. People call him that. That's ridiculous. He is a democratic socialist. David Dinkins [New York mayor from 1990-93] was a democratic socialist. We've had a long history in New York City of socialism. What's the biggest challenge Mamdani faces as mayor! I don't think the Zohranistas totally understand the fiscal irresponsibility we just went through with the Adams years and how little money there's left. There's not enough money to do all the things that Zohran wants to do.
A last question. All through our interview you pronounced Mamdani as "Mandami," transposing the "m" and the "n" in his name. Are you aware of the mispronunciation? Many people, Cuomo included, mangle his name. In the debate, Zohran brought that to my attention, my mispronunciation. I didn't do it on purpose. There's no disrespect. I have a hard time with it. It took people about 10 years to pronounce my last name correctly: "Sleewah.'" They pronounced it Silva, Saliva, Slywah. In the streets, we would have given Zohran a nickname, like I did for all the Guardian Angels. "Z Man" would have been perfect for him. That would have been his handle. Mr. Varadarajan, a Journal contributor, is a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and at NYU Law School's Classical Liberal Institute.
this is the most incredible interview i’ve ever read. the aei guy tries so hard to get sliwa to trash mamdani and he simply won’t. he also brings up flaco (rip) unprompted.
www.wsj.com/opinion/free...
What I hope this appointment, and the pomp around it, foreshadow is that when this transportation department gets a call from the mayor’s office, it will be from someone asking "What do you need to do this faster?”
There are teams within the city DOT with expertise in delivering projects to make buses fast and traffic safe. During the Adams’ administration, City Hall too often intervened to slow them down, sometimes at the behest of major donors.
It’s notable to see a strong implementer, as opposed to a politician (a pattern with Mamdani's picks). Flynn knows how to get the bureaucracy in gear. He may not be a political operator, but his attendance is an early suggestion that transportation will remain as central as the campaign suggested.
It’s encouraging to 1) see Mike Flynn named as NYC transportation commissioner and 2) see him standing with Mayor Mamdani at his private swearing-in ceremony, which the NYT found surprising www.nytimes.com/2026/01/01/n...
