Infrastructure on CrossGov.com

DOE Uses the Defense Production Act to Fund the Constitution Pipeline and Two Grid Projects, Up to $242 Million in Two Weeks

Tue, 20 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Department of Energy has committed up to $242 million of Defense Production Act money to three energy projects since October 5: a gas pipeline into New York, a second power line in Alaska and grid upgrades in Virginia. A law passed in 1950 for the Korean War is now paying for permits and power lines.

The biggest award came first. On October 5 DOE offered the Alaska Energy Authority up to $150 million for the Beluga-Healy line, about 223 miles of new transmission between Southcentral and Interior Alaska. Today a single intertie, built in the 1980s, carries power between Anchorage and Fairbanks, and most of the state’s military bases draw on it. The project is priced at $418 million, a preliminary estimate, with the other $268 million to come from non-federal sources. DOE’s release cites the state’s big military installations without naming one.

FMCSA's Non-Domiciled CDL Rule Will Push Out About 194,000 Truckers as California's $160 Million Penalty Goes to Court

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s rule on non-domiciled commercial driver’s licenses has been in force since March 16. It ends eligibility for about 194,000 current holders as their licenses come up for renewal.

Two appeals cases heard in September will test it. On September 11 the DC Circuit heard California’s challenge to the Transportation Department’s decision to withhold about $160 million of its highway money. On September 15 the same court heard the challenge to the rule itself. Neither has ruled.

Interior Pays $3.9 Billion to Retire Offshore Wind Leases While the Five Projects It Tried to Stop Keep Building

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Interior Department has agreed to pay about $3.9 billion to energy companies to give up 12 offshore wind leases, while losing every court fight over the five projects already under construction. Washington’s offshore wind policy now runs on two tracks: cash to stop future farms, and lawsuits it can’t win against the ones in the water.

On September 18 Ørsted installed the 65th and last turbine at Revolution Wind, the 704-megawatt farm off Rhode Island that Interior ordered to stop work twice. It has fed partial power to Rhode Island and Connecticut since March.

Senate Permitting Deal S. 5653 Sets a 150-Day Lawsuit Clock and Makes Data Centers Pay for Their Grid Upgrades

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On September 30 the chairs and ranking members of the Senate’s two energy and environment committees introduced a bipartisan permitting bill: Republicans Shelley Moore Capito and Mike Lee, and Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse and Martin Heinrich. The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, S. 5653, is aimed at the lame duck. Leaders want floor time in November. It needs 60 votes.

What it does

The bill touches most of the laws that slow big projects.

Surface Transportation Board Puts Union Pacific's $85 Billion Norfolk Southern Takeover Through Its First Test Under the 2001 Merger Rules

Sat, 10 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Surface Transportation Board, the federal agency that regulates freight railroads, is reviewing Union Pacific’s $85 billion takeover of Norfolk Southern. Its final decision is due by August 28, 2027.

The deal would join Union Pacific, one of the two big railroads in the West, with Norfolk Southern, one of the two in the East, and create the first single-company transcontinental railroad in the US: more than 50,000 route miles in 43 states. Shareholders of both companies approved it in November 2025 by more than 99%. The board now has to decide whether it’s in the public interest, and it’s using a standard no railroad merger has faced before.

Highway Trust Fund Runs Dry in 2028, CBO Says, as the House's $580 Billion Highway Bill Stalls Short of the Floor

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

CBO projects the Highway Trust Fund’s highway account will run out of money in fiscal 2028 and its transit account in 2027. Congress hasn’t passed a bill to replace the 2021 infrastructure law, which expired on September 30.

Federal highway and transit programs are running on the stopgap signed on September 2, Public Law 119-103, which also funds the government. It extends trust fund programs to December 11 at prorated 2026 levels. It doesn’t continue the infrastructure law’s advance appropriations, the extra general fund money that sat on top of the trust fund. The National League of Cities puts the cut at $36.8 billion, spread across BUILD grants, Safe Streets and Roads for All, the bridge formula program, rail grants and others, 35 programs in all, which lost that money on October 1. The effect on transit agencies is covered in our post on transit fiscal cliffs.

Transit Fiscal Cliffs: Bay Area Votes on November 3 as the Federal Stopgap Cuts Transit Funding About 20%

Fri, 09 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On November 3 voters in five Bay Area counties decide on a sales tax to keep BART, Muni, AC Transit and Caltrain running. It would add half a cent in Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties and a cent in San Francisco for 14 years, raising about $980 million a year against a combined operating deficit of more than $800 million a year. A poll found 54% support.

FAA Air Traffic Control Overhaul Asks Congress for $30 Billion More as GAO Finds No Reliable Cost Estimate

Mon, 05 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Transportation Department wants another $30 billion from Congress to finish rebuilding US air traffic control, on top of the $12.5 billion it got in July 2025. GAO says the FAA still can’t show what the whole job will cost.

Secretary Sean Duffy made the request on September 28 at Reagan National Airport, the site of the January 2025 midair collision that killed 67 people and set off the push. The same day Senator Eric Schmitt introduced the Modern Skies Act to provide the money. In December 2025 the department put the figure at $20 billion. The White House’s fiscal 2027 budget didn’t ask for it through regular appropriations. Duffy has said he’d rather get it through reconciliation.

Permitting Reform Compared: The US Rewrites NEPA, Britain Passes Its Planning Act and the EU Proposes Deadlines With Tacit Approval

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The environmental impact statement for an 88-mile railway in Utah ran to 3,600 pages. When the case reached the US Supreme Court in May 2025, the justices used it to change how the country’s main environmental review law works. In Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, the Court told judges to give agencies substantial deference on how they carry out reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act, and said agencies don’t have to study separate projects upstream or downstream of the one in front of them.

California High-Speed Rail Loses Its Federal Grants as Britain's HS2 Resets at Up to £102.7 Billion

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

On July 16, 2025, the Federal Railroad Administration terminated about $4 billion in grants to California’s high-speed rail project. The Transportation Department put its projected total cost at $135 billion, with about $15 billion spent over 16 years. California is now laying track in the Central Valley with no federal money at all.

Britain’s HS2 tells the same story at a different scale. On May 19, 2026, Britain’s Transport Secretary, Heidi Alexander, gave Parliament the new price of HS2. The line from London to Birmingham will cost between £87.7 billion and £102.7 billion. In 2019 prices, the estimate is now £70.9 to £82.2 billion, against £35 to £45 billion before. The first trains, between Old Oak Common in west London and Birmingham Curzon Street, are expected between May 2036 and October 2039. The full route into Euston follows between 2040 and 2043.

Second Avenue Subway vs Madrid Metro: Why New York Pays Over Ten Times the Global Average per Mile

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In June 2026 New York broke ground on the main construction stage of Second Avenue Subway Phase 2. It’s 1.8 miles of tunnel from 96th Street to 125th Street, with three new stations. The construction budget is about $6.9 billion, and the full cost with financing is about $7.7 billion. That works out at more than $4 billion a mile. The tunnel boring machine starts at 120th Street in early 2027, and trains are due in 2032.