America 2050 Update: April 10, 2009

By Petra on April 10, 2009
In This Update:

  • Register now for RPA's Regional Assembly on April 17
  • Florida Super Regional Leadership Conference May 7
  • New Policy Brief: Rethinking CO2
  • Photos and materials from the PAM Megaregion Forum
  • The Texas Urban Triangle: A Framework for Future Growth
  • About America 2050

Register Now for RPA's Regional Assembly - America 2050: Building the Next Economy - on April 17

Register now on the RPA website. 

This Friday, Regional Plan Association will host its 19th Annual Regional Assembly at the Waldorf=Astoria in New York City, focusing on the challenge of rebuilding America's economy for sustainable prosperity and growth. The framework for the day's discussions is provided by America 2050. Discussions will focus on how investments in transportation, water, and energy infrastructure, as well as housing and economic development can lay a long term framework for growth.

The Assembly will feature keynote speakers Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Moody's Economy.com Chief Economist Mark Zandi and New York Governor David Paterson, among many others, in a full day of workshops, conversation and collaboration, with the goal of building consensus and understanding solutions to repair our tattered economy.

Visit the Regional Assembly website.

 

 

Florida Super Regional Leadership Conference 

America 2050 is pleased to participate in the upcoming Super Regional Leadership Conference on May 7, 2009 in ChampionsGate, Florida, hosted by the Tampa Bay Partnership and Central Florida Partnership.  The conference will focus on the impact of the economic crisis on the Orlando-Tampa "super region" (their term for a subset of the megaregion) and challenges affecting the entire Florida megaregion. In light of the changing economic landscape, speakers will offer insights as to how these regions can work together to align themselves for future growth and innovation. Join America 2050 co-chair Bob Yaro as he addresses the conference as lunchtime keynote, speaking about America 2050.

Visit the Super Regional Leadership Conference website here.  

 

Rethinking CO2: From Waste to Recyclable Resource

What if there was a zero-cost technology that enabled continued and even increased U.S. coal utilization with a 90% reduction of associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions? How would the U.S. economy change if implementation of this technology could offset billions of dollars in foreign oil purchases through domestic coal use and create thousands of jobs over the next 5 years? How would commodity markets change if this technology produced sustainable bio-crude for use in existing petroleum refineries at less than $50/barrel and high quality vegetable protein and micronutrients for human, livestock, and aquaculture consumption for less than $500/ton?

A new America 2050 policy brief by Dan Fuller explores these questions and offers a road map toward commercializing profitable emissions mitigation technologies, as America 2050 embarks on a new study of the infrastructure needed to enable rapid commercialization of carbon mitigation and renewable energy technologies.

Read the paper.

 

Photos and materials from the PAM Megaregion Forum

On March 23, America 2050 partnered with the Center for Quality Growth and Regional Development, the Georgia Transportation Institute, the Atlanta Regional Commission, and the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce to host a major infrastructure forum focusing on national infrastructure policy and the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion.

Stakeholders, experts, government, business, and civic leaders from Birmingham, Alabama to Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina came together to set priorities for a national infrastructure policy and specific investments in transportation, energy and water infrastructure in the Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion.

Speakers included: Ray Christman, President and CEO of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta, John Horsley, Executive Director of AASHTO, William Millar, Executive Director of the American Public Transportation Association, Rebecca Wodder, President of American Waters, and Pat McCrory, Mayor of the City of Charlotte.

 

Materials are available from the forum, including the Program, the Center's Megaregions Primer, and photos of the event on the America 2050 website.

The Texas Urban Triangle: A Framework for Future Growth

Students and professors at Texas A&M University have created a Texas Urban Triangle web portal for their long-term study of the Texas Urban Triangle -- the megaregion encompassing Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, San Antonio, and Houston. A graphic and technical report of the Triangle is available on their website, including an Executive Summary.

Visit the Texas web portal.

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