Audrey Dutton

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation this week issued guidance on how state and local governments should apply for $600 million for projects under a competitive discretionary grant program.

Smaller airports, transfer hubs, and airports with a large proportion of business from only one or two airlines will be most vulnerable if the remaining U.S. legacy airlines continue to consolidate, Fitch Ratings said in a report issued yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Never before in the U.S. has there been such a push to develop high-speed rail, with Congress and the Obama administration providing funds and new programs that could ultimately get the trains up and running here as they are in other advanced countries.

WASHINGTON — Critics of a new nuclear loan guarantee program warned a House Oversight Committee panel this week that it would subsidize too-risky investments, while backers claimed the program is critical to nuclear development.

WASHINGTON — Real estate investment trusts could be the next frontier for infrastructure financing, according to a report released yesterday by Deloitte LLP, a member of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a Swiss association. But legislation is needed to clarify questions of eligibility if public-sector entities want to secure REIT investments, the report said.

Clean water state revolving funds may increasingly be used to purchase land due to the Obama administration’s focus on “green” or alternative infrastructure investments, market participants said Friday as the president launched a major conservation initiative.

WASHINGTON — Infrastructure in the U.S., especially for water systems and surface transportation, is desperately in need of investment, the Urban Land Institute and Ernst & Young declared this week. Their report criticized governments from the local to federal levels for their sluggish movement toward transportation and infrastructure financing reform.

Innovative financing tools for transportation projects — including an array of different types of bonds — should be expanded and grouped into a centralized department at the federal level, state and local officials told House panel members yesterday.

WASHINGTON — Amtrak wants to become a major player in creating a national high-speed rail network, as states continue to jockey for funding from the federal government and potentially offer up their own bonds to help cover construction costs.

PFM Group announced Friday it has acquired consulting firm Fullerton & Friar, a move that makes the financial advisory company one of the largest in the country for airport financing transactions.

WASHINGTON — A coalition of 27 transportation, labor, and other groups are urging lawmakers drafting climate and energy legislation that could impose a carbon tax on gasoline to ensure any resulting tax revenue would be funneled into the highway trust fund instead of other programs.

Americans, even in rural areas, overwhelmingly favor expanding public transportation such as rail or bus transit rather than highway construction, which traditionally has received much more funding, according to a recent national poll.

WASHINGTON — The House Thursday voted 276 to 145 to approve a bill that would increase the maximum allowable passenger facilities charge that airports can collect to $7.00 from $4.50.

The House today is expected to vote on a bill that would reauthorize federal aviation programs and allow airports to ramp up revenue they use to back bonds.

The Senate has approved a Federal Aviation Administration authorization bill that would establish a pilot program giving six airports the ability to set their own passenger facilities charges, which currently are capped at $4.50 and are used to back bonds.

WASHINGTON — Another extension of federal transportation programs beyond the end of this year is highly possible, a congressional aide and transportation industry sources said at a conference here yesterday.

WASHINGTON — A new public power utility may be created in New York for the first time in over 10 years if a measure introduced in the state Legislature is approved. It would serve the far upstate counties of St. Lawrence and Franklin, and kick off with an initial bond deal of around $90 million.

WASHINGTON — There are 10,000 transportation infrastructure projects under way in all 50 states and the District of Columbia with funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Vice President Joe Biden announced yesterday.

The House yesterday unanimously approved a bill that would provide a three-month extension of aviation programs, including airports’ ability to collect fees they use to back bonds. The bill also includes provisions that would change how some surface transportation funds are distributed.

A tax bill amendment that was introduced last week by Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., would establish a pilot program for six airports to collect potentially unlimited passenger facilities charges.