If anyone knows about energy-efficient, environmentally responsible buildings, it’s the U.S. Green Building Council. The booming non-profit wrote the book when it comes to guiding and recognizing those who create the world’s greenest buildings.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the council’s new headquarters in Washington, D.C., has received their own highest rating for environmentally smart buildings – platinum.

Before you assume they’re tooting their own horn, a look at all of the green elements of the council’s new 75,000-square-foot office may allay suspicions. (Besides, if they didn’t build the most energy-efficient and environmentally sound building possible, more than a few fingers would wag.)

The building includes:

• 100 percent underground parking (thus, no heat-island effect) and proximity to public transportation.
• A two-story water feature in the airy, open lobby to bring the outdoors inside.  Floor-to-ceiling glass windows offer every office and cubicle daylight and a view outdoors. The windows’ electronic shades reduce glare and automatically adjust based on exterior light.
• An elevator lobby, reception and conference areas covered in 500-year-old gumwood that was, according to a release from the council, salvaged from the Tennessee River. A two-story portion of the gumwood contains the USGBC logo.
• Water use was decreased by 40 percent with the help of low-flow faucets and shower heads, two-way flushing systems on toilets and waterless urinals.
• Zoning controls that employees can use to control temperature provide energy savings, as do sensors that turn lights off when offices are empty (or dim and turn off when daylight is bright).
• Furnishings and finishes are all green: wall panels made of recycled polyesters, carpet tile that is 60 percent recycled, countertops of 100 percent recycled glass. Paint, flooring and furnishings do not add chemicals to the air, and there are CO2 sensors.
• An impressive 95 percent of the construction and demolition debris from the construction was reconstituted, never nearing a landfill.
• A dashboard system that provides constant feedback on the building’s energy use.
• A “learning pathway” explains the green design techniques of the building. A “material wall” shows every material used in the offices, including where it came from and how it’s used.
• A “performance dashboard” – a flat-panel TV – shows how the building works, and its efficiency.
• The “progress wall” explains and outlines the council’s function and its LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency & Design) certification system, which recognizes buildings for their green design, operations, location and maintenance. The building also has an “environmental” timeline showing centuries of green milestones.
• The “Knowledge Center” replaces the conventional library. It’s a “smart room” chock full of examples of and reading material about green technology.
• The council’s employees moved into their new building in March. They needed more space, their statement says, because of more than 35,000 projects participating in their LEED system (which adds up to more than 5.6 billion square feet of construction in every U.S. state and 91 countries).

The green building industry, the council says, is expected to grow to $60 billion by next year.

The council brings together builders and environmentalists, elected officials, corporations and others to help make buildings – new or retrofitted — more cost-efficient and environmentally sound. They provide green guidance and recognition for everything from houses and commercial buildings, neighborhoods and schools, retail and healthcare facilities. Buildings in the U.S. suck up a lot of energy – some estimates put the carbon footprint of buildings at about 40 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions –so LEED certification can help reduce carbon footprints.

In April, the council launched a new version of its LEED program, with expanded “credit points” for various design elements, and in some cases, stricter requirements.

Photos courtesy United States Green Building Council

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Somewhere in between the sleep-away camps, beach excursions and baseball games of summer, kids and parents alike generally see the appeal of the sand-free floors and refrigerated air of a good museum. Institutions across the country know this is a great time to squeeze some education into kid-friendly, entertaining exhibitions; here’s a list of some of the best nature-oriented attractions for vacationers who’ve felt a bit too much heat this month.

Photo: City of Chicago

Chicago added the most square feet of green roofs in 2008

The City of Chicago added the most square feet of green roofs in 2008 of any North American city, followed closely by Washington, D.C. and New York City, according to an industry association.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, the green roof industry association, also announced a 2008 U.S. growth rate of more than 35 percent over 2007, representing more than 3.1 million square feet installed in 2008. The data came from the association’s Fourth Annual Industry Survey of corporate members that completed green roof projects in 2008.

The City of Chicago has numerous policies in place to support green roofs and urban greening. New York State passed a tax abatement measure in 2008 that will provide up to $100,000 per green roof to improve stormwater management and reduce the urban heat island.

Top Ten Metropolitan Areas – Green Roof Square Footage Installed, 2008

1. Chicago, Il. — 534,507
2. Washington, D.C. — 501,042
3. New York, N.Y. — 358,986
4. Vancouver, B.C. — 320,000
5. Philadelphia, Pa. — 196,820
6. Baltimore, Md. — 150,032
7. Montreal, QC. — 75,700
8. Grand Rapids, Mich. — 74,784
9. Princeton, N.J. — 56,250
10. Newtown Square, Pa. — 48,130

“The green roof industry continues to grow rapidly in response to the pressing need for cleaner air, better stormwater management, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and developing more usable green spaces in our communities,” Steven W. Peck, founder and president of Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, said in a statement.

Green Roofs for Healthy Cities will hold its 7th Annual International Greening Rooftops for Sustainable Communities Conference, Awards and Trade Show in Atlanta from June 3 – 5. The Conference brings together more than 1,000 green roof and wall design professionals, manufacturers, researchers and policy makers from across North America and around the world.

Related stories:

• UT Studies Green Roofs: A Cool Growing Idea
• Chicago’s ‘Smart Home’ inspires green lifestyle
• The New Chicago School: Green Building

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York City, NY
3. Portland, OR
4. Seattle, WA
5. Los Angeles, CA
6. Denver, CO
7. Minneapolis, MN
8. Washington, D.C.
9. Boston, MA
10. Philadelphia, PA
11. Chicago, IL
12. Baltimore, MD
13. Detroit, MI
14. Pittsburgh, PA
15. Orlando, FL
16. Cleveland, OH
17. Sacramento, CA
18. Miami, FL
19. Tampa, FL
20. Phoenix, AZ
21. St. Louis, MO
22. Houston, TX
23. Indianapolis, IN
24. Dallas, TX
25. Atlanta, GA

From Green Right Now Reports

Green Apple Festival and Earth Day Network have released the 2009 line up for the free “Green Apple Thank You Concerts” for volunteers in major cities across the country over Earth Day Weekend (April 17 through 19).

Performers at the flagship event “Earth Day on the National Mall” in Washington D.C. will be announced soon, festival organizers said.

This year’s Green Apple Festival has grown to 10 cities and will focus on environmental volunteerism. Volunteers who participate in the activities over the weekend will be given tickets to attend the free “Thank You” concerts.

Here are the artists announced for each festival city:

• Atlanta, GA – Galactic & Friends with opener Victoria George at Variety Playhouse
  Galactic is a leading funk and jazz instrumental band from New Orleans, Louisiana. George is a country/rock singer/songwriter.
• Austin, TX – Travis Tritt & Friends at Antone’s (on Monday April 20)
  Tritt is a Grammy Award-winning Country star who has charted more than 30 singles on the Hot Country Songs charts, including five #1’s
• Boston, MA – Soulive & Friends at Paradise Rock Club
  The funk/jazz trio originated in Buffalo, New York, and is known for its solos and catchy, upbeat songs Chicago, IL – Cracker & Friends at The Metro Cracker is an Alt-rock favorite founded by former Camper Van Beethoven member David Lowery with Johnny Hickman
• Denver, CO – Ivan Neville’s Dumpstaphunk & Friends at Cervante’s Masterpiece
  Led by Ivan Neville, a member of legendary Neville family and his popular funk band from New Orleans
• Los Angeles, CA – The Hotel Cafe Presents Cary Brothers & Friends at The Roxy
  The Hotel Cafe venue in LA helped launch the careers of top singer/songwriters, including Brothers, an indie rock singer-songwriter from Nashville, Tennessee
• New York City – Deep Banana Blackout featuring Fred Wesley & Friends at Bowery Ballroom
  The Soul legend from the James Brown Band joins this long-time NY funk favorite
• San Francisco, CA – BassNectar & Friends at Slim’s
  BassNectar is an electronic music freeform project based in San Francisco, known as a top DJ and collaborator
• Seattle, WA – The Blue Scholars & Friends at The Crocodile
  The Northwest’s Top Hip-Hop group will be playing their hometown
• Washington, DC – artists will be announced soon for Earth Day on the National Mall

If you’d like to volunteer, go to www.PlanetGreen.com to sign up.

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Next month we celebrate Earth Day, the calendar hub of environmental action in the United States and around the globe.

The event, launched back in 1970, has enjoyed enduring life, inspiring countless mid-April tree plantings and “trash offs.” No doubt many adults today remember canvassing a ditch for soda cans and paper litter sometime during their childhood.

Lately, Earth Day has been enjoying a resurgence as green aspirations break out in corporate offices, Jaycee meetings and kindergarten classrooms everywhere.

But with the movement focused on April 22, you might be asking yourself, is it too late to sign up?

Not at all, says Raquel Garcia, communications manager for the Earth Day Network. “It’s never too late. We encourage actions no matter how small. There are many things you can do. You can plan a community event, maybe with just your neighbors. Maybe you call up your representative or senator or state official and ask them to put pressure on the federal government to help curb global warming by cutting carbon emissions.”

Garcia had other suggestions when we spoke Wednesday, noting that you also could:

• Search for an event on the Earth Day Network and sign up with something already planned.

• Watch an Inconvenient Truth

• Pledge to not eat meat for a month, which would have a tremendous effect on reducing global warming, according to Garcia, pointing out as many experts do that producing meat is resource-intensive.

• Organize a day at school to teach children about renewable energy.

“The actions are really infinite; there are so many things you can do,” she said.

Last year, EDN, based in Washington D.C., sponsored events in eight key U.S. cities. This year, they’ve increased that to 10, though the tenor of the events will be a bit different. There will still be a full day-long festival on the National Mall in D.C. But instead of a day-long festivals in the other cities, the Earth Day weekend celebrations (April 17-19) will focus on volunteer projects; a “nationwide weekend of action”.

Yes, that means you’ll gather with others to work — cleaning up parks, laying garden beds, scouring beaches, planting trees or perhaps helping weatherize low-income housing. (We might be unemployed in America, but we’re not out of work!) The details have not been announced yet, but soon. Look for more at the Green Apple Festival site.

Participants at the ten sponsoring city events will be treated to a free concert that Sunday. Again, watch for details. We’ll keep you posted here as well.

So if you live in one of the ten sponsor cities: New York City, Boston, Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle, get ready for a busy weekend.

If you dock your boat in a smaller hamlet, you can check out planned events at the Find An Event search area on the EDN website.

You also can register community or group events, large or small, with the EDN.

Garcia is certain that even with the focus on work – which seems in keeping with the times this year – Earth Day will enjoy tremendous turn out. She sees more mainstream involvement than ever, having recently fielded calls from places not always associated with environmental action, such as military bases and a New York branch of the Homeland Security Office.

People are realizing that protecting the environment is not partisan and it’s not particular, she said. The environment is, by definition, all that surrounds us. It’s clean air, healthy food, unspoiled land and a future for our children. We all have a stake.

“We’re very happy to see more and more people seeing that (for) one, we don’t have any more time to waste. If we keep waiting for a miracle to happen, it’s not going to happen. We better stop reducing (our emissions and waste) now, or we’re going to go to the point of no return a lot sooner than a lot of people realized. ”

(Sponsors for the large city events include: Disneynature Earth (the movie opens in theaters April 22); Timberland: Join the Earthkeepers^TM movement; Motorola, Inc.: Offering the first carbon neutral mobile device, MOTO^TM W233 Renew and Clear2GO^TM: Drink Clean & Go Green.)

Photo credit: Justin Kase Condor, Noofangle Media,

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

When the students at Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School in Washington, D.C., learned about the environmental impact of trash, they wanted to make a change in their own school.

Thurgood Marshall, with 365 students in grades 9 through 12, is a college preparatory school with a focus on law and legal careers. But thanks to teachers like Sam Ullery, 29, who teaches 9^th grade earth science and 12^th grade environmental science, the students also are learning many hands-on ways they can reduce their impact on the earth.

Across the country, in preparation for Earth Day and in response to growing public awareness of climate change, students and teachers are not only learning about the environment but using that knowledge to change their schools.

At Thurgood Marshall, Ullery, Sarah Johnson, who teaches 10^th grade biology, and Scott Guggenheimer, the after-school activity director, decided to coordinate science lessons with the activities of the school’s Green Club.

For one project, they helped the students weigh all the trash that their school produced, and then focused on ways they could recycle more and throw away less. (See photo of the weigh-in.)

The Green Club members and science students began a worm compost pile, and today much of the leftovers from school cafeteria trays and lunchboxes gets chewed up in the worm-eating factory.

The rich organic compost that the worms generate, in turn, nourishes the school’s garden. And the school garden returns the favor with produce that the students can take home to eat with their families.

The students also conduct water testing to learn about the local Anacostia River watershed. (See photo left.)

In addition, they are making a film about where food comes from “and how too much of our school lunches gets thrown away,” said Ullery. “For our documentary, we have cameras, lights, microphones, and the kids are working as sound editors, producers and writers.”

In his classroom, Ullery sometimes uses lesson plans from Earth Day Network, and the D.C.-based network also sponsors the school’s Green Club.

The  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has recognized 25 U.S. cities for having the most Energy Star buildings in 2008.

The top 10 are Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Atlanta and Seattle.

Los Angeles ranked first with 262 buildings earning the Energy Star rating, which can be applied to rehabbed and new properties. San Francisco had 194 buildings; Houston, 145; Washington D.C., 136 and Dallas, 126.

Energy Star, the EPA’s label for high efficiency, sets standards for everthing from light bulbs and appliances to buildings.

“An Energy Star building,” says Energy Star spokesperson Maura Beard, “uses 35 percent less energy and emits 35 percent less greenhouse gases than average buildings.”

Looking at the list, it might surprise some to see cities such as Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston — known more for their air quality challenges than for green building — at the top of the rankings.

Ms. Beard explains that the list reflects improvements in buildings, which will be reflected in air quality gains later on.

“In terms of this list, we looked specifically at [a building’s] reductions in greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. This is a big concern in states like California and Texas where there is a lot of demand on their infrastructure,” she says.

There were some standout buildings in each of these three cities, she says. She praised a retrofit of a JC Penney store that was built in 1969 in Downey Calif., in Los Angeles County. “They did a beautiful job improving the building’s energy efficiency, starting with its operating characteristics,” says Beard. (Also this week, JC Penney, an early adopter of the Energy Star program with 52 stores that have earned the label, won the first Energy Star Award for Sustained Excellence in Energy Management.)

In Houston, the Green Valley Elementary School involved the student body in its transformation. “Here the kids formed patrol teams making sure lights weren’t left on in the cafeteria and elsewhere when not in use,” says Beard. And in Dallas, the Hines real estate firm, won the Energy Star rating for its Galleria North Tower office building.

The Galleria office building is attached to a spacious, upscale, air-conditioned mall, which raises the question: What about the energy efficiency of malls in general?

“Shopping malls are difficult [structures] to measure efficiency in,” says Beard. “For Energy Star, we collect data from the Department of Energy, then build a model. There are 12 different types of buildings included in the Energy Star ratings. For example, you can’t compare a hospital to a small store. Your have to compare peers, apples to apples.

“For now, we can just measure the efficiency of the anchor stores at a mall. It’s difficult to measure each of the many small stores. We are working with the Simon group, who manages many of the country’s malls, to improve this.”

The EPA reports that in 2008, more than 3,300 commercial buildings and manufacturing plants earned the Energy Star rating. This translates into a savings of more than $1 billion in utility bills and more than 7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. The structures range from schools and hospitals to office buildings and assembly plants.

More than 6,200 U.S. buildings have qualified for the Energy Star rating in total, says EPA spokesperson Enesta Jones. This represents an annual savings in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking 2 million cars off the road.

Depending on the climate and location, buildings, homes and offices and workplaces, are estimated to be responsible for about 40 percent of the world’s GHG gases.

The Energy Star rating system for buildings is similar to the green certification system devised by the U.S. Green Building Council known as LEED or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Efficiency and Design. But Energy Star is more focused on onsite power savings, while LEED looks at how building materials are sourced and considers broader environmental issues like how close a building is to mass transit opportunities.

“LEED certification tends to be more for new buildings and includes everything, green roofs, supplies and materials, recycling, even the commute,” says Beard. “Energy Star is purely about energy efficiency.”

“It works best if the two [certification systems] are used hand in hand,” she says. “Energy Star is more rigorous in terms of energy efficiency. With LEED, you can get a bunch of points for many different attributes. If a building doesn’t score highly on energy efficiency, it could still earn LEED certification because it might score well on other levels.” (Though LEED standards are currently being tightened and it would be difficult for a building to earn the highest level ratings without being energy efficient.)

EPA’s new chief Lisa P. Jackson is pleased with the results of the Energy Star cities. In a statement released yesterday, she said, “EPA commends all of these cities…[that] are now using more energy efficient appliances and dwellings. They are saving energy, saving money and protecting our environment.”

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Related stories:

• KTRK-Houston: Go inside Houston’s green school
• KGO-San Francisco: North Bay city makes ‘green living’ a law

By Diane Porter
Green Right Now

Next Monday, in what is billed as the largest mass civil disobedience rally for the climate in U.S. history, organizers expect thousands of people to join in a protest at the Capitol Power Plant in Washington, D.C.  Hoping to bring attention to the issues of climate change and green jobs to the new administration and new Congress, the protestors are expected from around the country, spurred on by support and videos from actress and activist Susan Sarandon and NASA’s James Hansen.

“We want to send a clear message to Congress and the Obama administration that Americans aren’t satisfied with the action that’s been taken on climate yet,” said Mike Crocker, a spokesperson for Greenpeace. “We need robust policies in place as soon as possible, certainly in time for (the next United Nations Climate Talks) in Copenhagen in December 2009.”

The Capitol Power Plant is the only coal-burning plant in the District. It is a major source of sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide and soot in a city that has repeatedly been found in violation of the Clean Air Act, according to a story in The Washington Post. Although half of what it burns is coal, it also burns natural gas and fuel oil. In the past, when an effort was made to eliminate coal from the fuels the plant burns, Senators Robert C. Byrd, (D-W.Va.), and Mitch McConnell, (R-Ky.), both coal-producing states, blocked the attempt.

Despite that history, however, the power plant was chosen more for its proximity to Capitol Hill and its symbolic nature. “It’s not by any means the dirtiest or most polluting,” Crocker said, “but it’s Congress’s, and it’s symbolic of the country’s missteps it terms of climate and energy, and the new opportunities we have to right the ship in the next year.”

Protestors plan to disrupt access to the plant by surrounding it and refusing to leave, risking arrest in the process. The organizers’ website emphasizes that it will be a peaceful demonstration, “carried out in a spirit of hope and not rancor.” They are expecting, at last count, more than 2,500 attendees “from the neighborhood, from across the country and from across the world,” according to Crocker. More than 90 different organizations have endorsed the effort, and the event expects Hansen, former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, actress Darryl Hannah, singer Kathy Mattea and James Gustave Speth, dean of Yale University’s School of Forestry to attend. Sarandon is performing and won’t be there.

The Pew Center for Global and Climate Change says that reducing the greenhouse gases that result from burning coal is one of the most significant challenges facing those working on climate change. Coal use now accounts for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. But coal is cheap and plentiful, and the political issues surrounding it are deep and multi-layered. Coal plants in the United States are part of the country’s aging infrastructure; a third of them were built before 1970, and just 12 have been built since 1990. However, because of high natural gas costs and the political instability of nuclear power, an estimated 130 new coal plants are somewhere in the planning stages.

President Barack Obama  has made it clear that he supports efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, rely more on clean energy, and create more green jobs. So why such a big statement so early in the new administration?

“Clearly this administration is a breath of fresh air compared to the last 8 years, but there’s no time to waste,” Crocker said. “We of course welcome the priority that the Obama administration has made into climate issues, but there are a lot of powerful interests at play here and the politics are such that you can never take anything for granted.”

For more info see the Capitol Climate Action website.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

Spa guests, already conscious about the health of their bodies, are starting to choose pampering experiences that keep the well-being of the environment in mind as well.

They still want to be indulged, say spa operators, but some are opting for experiences and products that soothe and improve, without nature-damaging ingredients.

Rona Berg, editor in chief of Organic Beauty magazine, says spa guests now look at what is in the products, where it comes from, who produces it and whether it is sustainable. Some even want to know if the company they’re supporting is giving back to the community.

“Consumer demand for healthier, eco-friendly and organic products isn’t showing any signs of stopping,” Berg says. “We’re undergoing a cultural paradigm shift and organic beauty is definitely one aspect of it.”

Americans have spent $7 billion on natural and organic personal care products over the past year, according to the Organic Consumers’ Association, and mainstream beauty brands are, in some cases, removing chemicals like parabens and sulfates, making quality products that skip the toxins.

What does going green really mean? We talked with a few spa operators to find out.

It’s refreshing in these days of gas and environmental calamities, not to mention lending and budget crises, to hear about something that’s chugging along in a positive direction.

That’s the story of Amtrak, or nearly so, at this junction. Ridership on the American passenger rail service is up a healthy 14 percent compared to this time last year, and is on pace to hit an all-time annual record of 28 million passengers in fiscal 2008.

Trains are whisking folks around in the busiest “Northeast Corridor” (DC to Boston) faster than ever, and people across the nation are flocking to inter-city train travel, a mode of transportation less polluting per passenger than both cars and planes. Amtrak seems right for the times and primed for expansion.

“Ridership is through the roof! Let’s get on with it,” announced Amtrak CEO Alexander Kummant at a transportation summit in Irving, Texas, last week, where he came well prepared to make the case for more Amtrak.

Tossing up a series of charts and graphs during a presentation to fellow transportation officials and business leaders, he showed the audience that train travel spirals upward in an almost dead even correlation with gas prices. Yes, our pain is Amtrak’s gain, and one can reasonably conclude that if high gas prices stick with us, as predicted, train ridership will boom.

And as more people wiggle out of their personal gasoline predicaments, trains could become ever more popular, given the leap to trains preceded gasoline hitting $4 a gallon, Kummant noted.

Furthermore, a review of the ridership shows that it is not just straining the tracks in the busy rail-savvy “Northeast Corridor,” but has increased nearly everywhere. July 2008 ridership figures show increases over July 2007 for the Texas Eagle’s San Antonio to Chicago route (up 30 percent); the Coast Starlight (Seattle to Los Angeles; up 28 percent); the Kansas City to St. Louis route (up 57 percent); and the Hiawatha (Chicago to Milwaukee; up 38 percent).

So it’s all good. Except that it’s not: Amtrak’s trains are full, but the national network is unprepared to handle more passengers.

Chronically under-funded to the point of near insolvency a few years ago, Amtrak is reaching a tipping point where it cannot take on new business because it lacks reserve cars to pull on line and also is hemmed in by lines it shares with freight trains.

Operating under tight budgets for years, and jeered by perennial critics who argue that the national train system (which traditionally operates in the red) should not even receive subsidies, Amtrak has been unable to refurbish retired cars or build new ones. The service’s infrastructure, including the depots and track that it largely shares with commercial railroads, badly needs modernizing. Many supporters believe that “double track” routes should be installed to allow Amtrak the ability to expand alongside existing lines and provide more flexible, rider-friendly service, but these lines would be expensive and subject to high local taxes.

And so, just as the demand for rail travel, ridership and gas prices conspire to create what Kummant terms a “perfect storm” of opportunity for Amtrak, the doppelganger of Amtrak Past haunts the future.

How to change that picture? Kummant cites one thing as absolutely necessary, both in his speech to transportation officials and in remarks afterward. He would desperately like Congress to give Amtrak multi-year funding, instead of piecemeal year-by-year appropriations, so it can hire, plan and strategize like any other business.

His ask is moderate compared to funding for other transportation: $1 billion a year for each of the next 10 years.

He asked this year, but was denied. “A bitter pill,” he says, in face of the potential.

“It’s incredibly easy to argue that Amtrak should double in size over the next 10 years, given everything that’s going on,” he says.

And possibly incredibly hard to make that happen. Whether Congress is letting American train potential go unrealized because it doesn’t care, is procedurally balled up (Kummant’s view) or is just better geared to subsidizing plane and car travel, has become almost academic. The bottom line is that public policy since Amtrak’s inception in 1970 is clear, the system is on a short leash — or as its supporters see it, riding a vicious cycle of too-little funding that causes it to be less profitable, which creates an argument for less funding.