World

Cuba, Across Political Divide, Shrugs at OAS Vote

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Cuba has no plans to rejoin the Organization of American States, despite the diplomatic body’s vote in June to allow Cuba back into the fold after 47 years. Cuba rejected on Monday the OAS offer to rejoin in a statement published in its state-run newspaper, calling the organization one “with a role and trajectory that Cuba repudiates,” the Miami Herald reported. Instead, the island nation is pushing a plan to establish a new inter-American and Caribbean organization that would exclude the United States, according to a report by Inter Press Service. Plans for the organization will be discussed at a regional summit in Mexico later this year. The first meeting, staged in Brazil in December 2008, was the first time a Latin/Caribbean regional summit was held without the United States, but included Cuba, according to a Tribune Media Services report.

Featured

The Future Is Faster

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High-speed rail is enjoying new buzz in Europe, Russia, Asia — and the United States, which sent Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood on a tour of the fastest rail systems in Spain (right) and elsewhere. What he learns could inform new high-speed rail projects back home. Photo: Sean Munson

Oakland Toxic Tour

Port of Oakland Truck Meeting Spins Wheels

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By Kwan Booth
Crowdfund this with Spot.Us
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour
The long road leading to cleaner air in West Oakland was stretched just a little farther Tuesday night, as Port of Oakland commissioners postponed voting on a controversial new program to control diesel pollution from thousands of trucks serving the port. West Oakland’s high rates of childhood asthma and lifelong illnesses, such as cancer, are linked to exhaust from truck and international ship traffic through the port. Approximately 100 representatives from the trucking, environmentalist and West Oakland communities packed Tuesday’s meeting as the board considered adopting the Comprehensive Truck Management Plan, which aims to reduce diesel emmissions from the port by 85 percent by 2020. The plan requires that all early-model trucks be fitted with new diesel filters by January 1st, 2010. Opponents of the plan expressed cautious optimism at amendments to include a proposed truck registration system as well as a complete ban on pre-1994 trucks, as recommended by the study.

Oakland Toxic Tour

Ship Pollution Escapes Oakland Diesel Debate

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By Kwan Booth
Crowdfund this with Spot.Us
Part of the Bay Area Toxic Tour
While much of the debate on reducing emissions from the Port of Oakland has revolved around trucks, diesel pollution from the trucks is estimated to make up only 4 percent of West Oakland’s overall toxic burden. A much larger percentage has been attributed to the international shipping companies that rent the ports — yet attempts to impose fees to pay for pollution controls have been sidetracked by global trade regulations and opposition by the state of California and even special interest groups in Oakland and the Bay Area. Fees targeting the shipping containers that pass through the Port of Oakland are usually opposed by the Oakland Chamber of Commerce, Alameda County Supervisors Scott Haggerty and Nate Miley, and the Waterfront Coalition — a Washington, D.C.-based group of importers, exporters, and shipping companies. These parties have repeatedly expressed concern that any new fees would only encourage shipping companies to abandon the Port of Oakland in favor of cheaper competitor. However, a 2006 study conducted by Energy and Environmental Research Associates, and funded by the Coalition for Clean Air and the Natural Resources Defense Council, found little evidence to support this theory.

World

High-Speed Rail Makes Tracks Worldwide

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High-speed rail is the latest public transportation buzz in the United States — and it’s also making tracks around the world. Spain, already admired for its high-speed rail system, got lots of international attention in May when it hosted U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray La Hood. Agence France-Presse reports that La Hood rode the trains there, as well as in France and Germany, looking for high-speed models to use back home. Spain intends to have a high-speed connection between Barcelona and the French border in place by 2012, according to the ThinkSpain.com website. Russia is also hoping for a rail-travel renaissance.