On Tuesday, the Senate banking committee held a hearing on how the federal government can improve public transportation options. Federal funding is badly needed. Ridership is skyrocketing due to gas prices, while services are being cut due to lack of funds.

A Wall Street Journal article on the issue summed up with a quote from our own Andy Darrell, vice president for Living Cities:

What we're seeing around the country is that transit is underfunded and is having a really hard time meeting that demand," Mr. Darrell said. "Our government should be ready to meet that demand, to embrace it."

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You probably know that you should do what you can to reduce your carbon footprint - the greenhouse gas emissions produced by your lifestyle. After you've done that, you can negate what remains by supporting projects to reduce emissions elsewhere - that is, by purchasing "carbon offsets". This works because, from a global warming perspective, it doesn't matter where the carbon comes from.

Carbon offsets are a good idea, but it's hard to know whether a given project truly reduces carbon emissions. There are no unified standards. To help you make good choices, Environmental Defense Fund has just published CarbonOffsetList.org, a guide to high-quality offset projects for businesses and consumers. These are projects that we would turn to for our own offset needs. Check it out!

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

What lives when public transportation is used, and dies when it's not? Potentially all of us.

This message is hauntingly conveyed by a street art installation showing polar bears coming to life as a subway passes beneath them:

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

I live in New York City, and when I started riding my bike to work last year, I became acquainted firsthand with the obstacles to using this most efficient and green mode of transport. Here's the short list:

• No sheltered place to park my bike.
• No place to park my bike at all - other bikes chained to all available racks and poles.
• Rules against chaining bikes to city property like trees or poles.
• Theft of anything not locked down - seat, wheels, bell, bike rack, or the entire bike. (Check out this YouTube video: "How to Steal a Bike in NYC".)
• Drivers who ignore bike lanes and seem unaware of how easily they could kill a biker.
• Bikers who ignore traffic laws and come at you the wrong way in bike lanes.
• Car doors that open treacherously into bike lanes.
• Streets with no bike lanes at all.
• Jaywalkers who mistakenly think that bikes can stop as quickly and easily as cars.

Thankfully, help is on the way. New York City has turned decidedly pro-bike under Department of Transportation (DOT) Commissioner Jeannette Sadik-Khan. And the non-profit group America Bikes is helping to bring bike-friendly changes to communities across the country.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

People are proposing all kinds of extreme measures to lower gasoline costs, including offshore drilling in areas that would destroy ecosystems despite no additional gas (or savings) for at least a decade.

But there are simple things you can do to immediately lower your gasoline costs by an average of 15 percent. The steps are outlined in a useful new Web site on EcoDriving sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The site is user-friendly, and offers a variety of educational tools, including an informative video and extensive tips on fuel-efficient driving and maintenance practices.

This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

Yesterday we sent an email to our action network asking how people were coping with high oil prices. The response on our sister blog, the Green Room, was enthusiastic - over 600 comments! Here are some of our favorites, organized by topic:

Strategies to Increase Gas Mileage

From Ann:

I've been driving 60 mph on the highway and have seen a dramatic improvement in my gas mileage. I'm getting 38-40 mpg in my Toyota Camry on the highway! Drive 60 when you go.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

We've posted several articles recently about the transportation crisis in this country - a painful combination of astronomical gas prices, inadequate public transit, and bike challenges in some cities. Well, okay, we haven't posted about biking yet, but we will soon!

Our Transportation by the Numbers list puts the situation in high relief. For example, did you know that 20 percent of public transit agencies in the U.S. are cutting services due to budget constraints, and 46 percent of Americans have no access to public transit at all? Use of public transit is at a 50-year high due to soaring gas prices, and yet services are being cut. Something is wrong with this picture!

Do you have a public transit story to tell? Tell us how you're coping with crowded parking at commuter train stations, crowded buses and trains, or whatever else is happening in your area. We'd love to hear your experiences. I'll be posting about my bike challenges in New York City in the next week or two.

This post is by Michael Replogle, Transportation Director at Environmental Defense Fund.

Think back to your last all-you-can eat buffet. Did you eat more than you would have ordering à la carte? The same applies to driving and car insurance. With insurance policies giving almost no consideration to miles driven, if you drive an average amount or less compared to other drivers in your neighborhood, you pay much more per mile for car insurance than high-mileage drivers, which are in the minority. Yet accident risks are clearly linked to miles driven.

Shouldn't your insurance premium correspond to your risk, saving you money if you drive less? That's the idea behind Pay-As-You-Drive (PAYD) Insurance - drive less, pay less. Pricing insurance by the mile not reduces premiums for the majority of drivers, but if universally available, would cut traffic by 8 percent, with corresponding reductions in greenhouse gases, air pollution, congestion, and oil imports.

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This post is by Michael Replogle, Transportation Director at Environmental Defense Fund.

Today, the New York City MTA proposed another fare and toll hike to manage a projected $900 million deficit next year. To avoid service cuts, according to WNYC, MTA head Lee Sander is "going begging everywhere, to Governor Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg, the federal government, and riders."

But in many other cities across the country, service cuts due to budget shortfalls are unavoidable. Ironically, communities are cutting services just when use of public transit is at a 50-year high due to skyrocketing gasoline prices (see map).

To avoid cutting these crucially important services, public transit systems urgently need federal help.

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This post is by Sheryl Canter, an online writer and editorial manager at Environmental Defense Fund.

People tend to do things the way they've always done unless something forces them to change - even if the new way is better and cheaper. So Hawaii has taken action to spur people along. From an article in the L.A. Times:

California last year passed legislation offering homeowners and businesses $250 million in incentives to install 200,000 solar water systems over the next 10 years.

But Hawaii Thursday took far bolder action, becoming the first state in the nation to require all new homes built after January 1, 2010 to be equipped with solar or other energy-efficient hot water systems.

The article goes on to say that Hawaii's switch to solar hot water will save homeowners money, and prevent the emission of more than 10,000 tons of greenhouse gases per year.