Congressman Sestak Receives Transportation Award

By THE OFFICE OF CONGRESSMAN JOE SESTAK

King of Prussia, PA —Congressman Joe Sestak (PA-07) received the Greater Valley Forge Transportation Management Association (GVF Transportation) 2009 Legislative Award during the organization’s annual meeting Wednesday at the GlaxoSmithKline Facility in King of Prussia. Speaking to an audience of over 100 GVF Transportation employees, Congressman Sestak addressed the significance of the Route 422 Corridor to local economic growth.

The 2009 Legislative Award focused on the Congressman’s policy achievements for the Route 422 Corridor, as well as other transportation accomplishments. Other awards were given to distinguished members of the community, such as Carl Pinto of the Upper Merion Township Transportation Authority Board for career achievement and representatives of PECO for environmental efforts.

The Mission of GVF Transportation is to offer a forum in which the business community and municipal, county and state officials can collectively work on transportation issues affecting the Greater Valley Forge area. A goal of GVF Transportation is to enhance mobility and safety through the reduction of congestion and pollution. GVF Transportation helps to promote the area’s orderly growth, sustain its quality of life, and ensure its continued economic vitality.

“I am honored to receive this award today. The Route 422 Corridor provides much needed development to move our infrastructure into the 21st century. By doing this we improve the national and district transportation systems while creating jobs and protecting the environment,” said the Congressman, “My goals in Congress have always been to improve environmental and economic security, this initiative does both.”

Congressman Sestak has commended the strategic investments to improve and safeguard our environment and modernize our infrastructure and transportation systems contained in the stimulus bill. Some of those provisions include:

· Energy Efficiency Programs

$300 million for funding for Energy Star program offering tax credits to consumers purchasing new, efficient appliances.

$2 billion for advanced batteries manufacturing grants.

$6.3 billion for energy efficiency grants to states and local governments.

$400 million for transport electrification grants.

$300 million for funding for states and local governments to buy efficient alternative fuel buses and trucks.

$2.5 billion for research and development of renewable and efficient energy technology (biomass, geothermal, base program activities into additional renewable technologies).

$4 billion for loan guarantees for standard renewables

$2 billion for transmission loan guarantees

$1 billion for fossil energy research and development

$800 million for research into low-emission coal plants

$1.52 billion for grants for industrial carbon capture and energy efficiency improvement projects

$50 million for grants for identifying sites to store carbon dioxide emissions

$20 million for grants for training and research on safe storage of carbon emission

· Energy Efficiency Block Grants, an agreement which appropriates $3.2 billion for the Energy Department’s Energy Efficiency Block Grant Program. The program, which was authorized by the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act, provides grants to state, local, and tribal governments to fund public facility renovation projects that would install more energy efficient building technologies and materials and energy efficient technology demonstration projects.

· $250 million is included for energy retrofitting and green investments in HUD-assisted housing projects.

· Electrical Grid projects- $11 billion for electrical grid projects. Of that total, $4.5 billion is for implementing “smart grid” technologies, which would sense, collect, and monitor data from a grid, provide real-time, two-way communication to help monitor or manage the grid as well as real-time analysis and event prediction based on data that would be used to improve the reliability, quality, and performance of the electricity grid.

· Renewable Electric Power Loan Guarantees-. $6 billion for the Renewable Energy and Electric Power Transmission Loan Guarantee Program. This program provides loan guarantees to private entities to fund alternative energy research. The funds will be used for biofuel projects that use technologies that are deemed commercially viable and produce transportation fuels that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Former 3-star Admiral Joe Sestak served in the Navy for 31 years and now serves as the Representative from the 7th District of Pennsylvania. He led a series of operational commands at sea, and was Commander of an aircraft carrier battle group of 30 U.S. and allied ships, with more than 15,000 sailors and 100 aircraft, that conducted operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. After 9/11, Joe was the first Director of “Deep Blue,” the Navy’s anti-terrorism unit that established strategic and operations policies for the “Global War on Terrorism.” He previously served in the White House as President Clinton’s Director for Defense Policy and holds a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. According to the office of the House Historian, he is the highest-ranking former military officer ever elected to the U.S. Congress.

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May 28, 2009 at 4:07 pm

--pa2010.com Staff