The US Department of Transportation has announced a $430 million loan to Spanish toll road operator Cintra to enable it to build a toll bypass of Interstate 35 through central Texas, from Austin to San Antonio. The remainder of the financing for the $1.36 billion project will come from private loans and investors.
“We’re helping give [...]

On March 8th, activists with Brazil’s Landless Workers Movement (MST) invaded a pig iron plant owned by Vale, the world’s largest iron ore exporter and second-largest mining company. Protesters sabotaged machinery and vandalized buildings in commemoration of International Women’s Day, according to statements by the company.
The MST is best known for occupying unused land as [...]

The draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) has been completed on the proposed Detroit River International Crossing, which would connect Detroit, Michigan with Windsor, Ontario. Public comments on the plan and the draft EIS will be accepted until April 29; two public hearings are planned for mid-March in Detroit. The FHWA boasts that it only took [...]

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has bombed an oil pipeline, according to the government. The bombing may have come in response to Colombia’s recent killing of a FARC leader in a cross-border raid into Ecuador.
Because oil and gas pipelines provide such critical infrastructure for governments, they are often favored targets of insurgent groups.
This [...]

According to statistics released by the US DOT’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, the value of US trade with Canada and Mexico has increased 73.5% since 1997. Exports have increased 63.6%, while imports have gone up by 82.0%.
Total trade between the US and the other two countries amounts to $60.9 billion per year, and 90% of [...]

The US Federal Highway Administration has allocated an extra $195 million to help rebuild the I-35W Mississippi River Bridge in Minneapolis, MN that collapsed in August 2007, bringing the government’s investment in rebuilding the bridge to $337 million.

The federal government has temporarily suspended a program that gives out loans for the construction of new coal plants in rural areas. While the feds have given out $1.3 billion in loans for rural coal plants since 2001, none are expected for 2008 or possibly even 2009.
Among the reasons cited were the concern over global [...]

The governors of Illinois and Missouri have announced that a planned 4-lane I-70 bridge across the Mississippi River in St. Louis will not be a toll road, but analysts say that an eventual toll is likely. The Corridors of the Future plan for truck-only lanes for I-70 might only be financially feasible with tolls, analyst [...]

The heads of state of Canada, Mexico and the US met in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico on February 27-28 to discuss their ongoing plans for a Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). According to a La Jornada article, the agenda included regional security, crime and terrorism, frontier security, sustainability and renewable energy.
The SPP [...]

On February 27, police raided indigenous Naso Teribe communities in Panama and arrested several anti-dam organizers.
Naso communitites have been resisting the entry of machinery to build the Bonyic hydroelectric dam in their territory. The dam is planned to be placed inside the Protector de los Palos Forest, right next to La Amistad International Park. None [...]