Numerous community advocates are calling on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build a long-proposed subway station at 10th Avenue and 41st Street.

Construction of the station is being reconsidered as part of the MTA's 20-year needs assessment. Since the station was originally proposed, the community has grown significantly with the 2020 New York City census data showing an additional 13,640 residents living in the area.

Danny Pearlstein, policy and communications director with the Rider's Alliance, said this project will face stiff competition from other priorities in MTA's future plan.

"The MTA has a lot of different priorities and a lot of funding priorities and not enough money to go around," said Pearlstein. "So, this project will be in some kind of competition with other potential uses of funds in the next capital program. The Interborough Express is something the governor is already committed to, and that's going to be a major project."

Other proposed projects include West Side Access, which would bring Metro North's Hudson Line to Penn Station. Pearlstein said he feels if the station was built during the extension's original construction, it would be more cost efficient.

Construction could interrupt 7 train service to Hudson Yards as well as street traffic, similar to when construction occurred on the Second Avenue Subway's first phase.

The station's necessity could be called into question, though, since Hell's Kitchen isn't a transit desert.

For the most part, residents have easy access to the 42nd Street stations in Times Square and at Port Authority, which provide access to 11 subway lines. This doesn't include the seven additional lines that are easily accessible via the 42nd Street shuttle.

Pearlstein said he feels the true need for this station comes down to how the subway is a heavily utilized means of transportation for Hell's Kitchen residents.

"Folks in this community are particularly transit dependent," said Pearlstein. "There are probably many fewer people, many fewer households that have cars in the sort of Hell's Kitchen area than, for example, in Flatlands, in Brooklyn, which is a heavily car-dependent area where some people take buses but many more households have cars, garages, have driveways. The car infrastructure is built out."

Flatlands would be one of several communities to be served by the new Interborough Express.

He said he feels getting people out of cars is a necessity as well, but says the competition between projects shouldn't exist. Instead, he said there should be enough money for all projects without it being an "either-or" decision.

President Joe Biden's bipartisan infrastructure law will disburse up to $239 million to help Georgia improve the resilience of transportation infrastructure. Environmental groups are urging state leaders to focus on rural communities, beyond Atlanta.

Severe weather events in recent years, such as flooding in the southeastern part of the state and Hurricane Zeta, are evidence enough that infrastructure funding should include climate preparedness, said Marsha Gosier, a Georgia organizer for the EDF Action Fund, part of the Environmental Defense Fund. She said she's most concerned about rural and coastal areas.

"Our submerging lowlands throughout Georgia, the coastal flooding that could occur in particular areas like Hudson Hill and Savannah, Georgia," she said, "money should definitely be placed for that in preparation, making sure that those communities are prepared."

Before the federal dollars were released, Republicans bristled over restrictions. They wanted more flexibility for using the funding, instead of the Biden administration's focus on improving existing infrastructure over creating new.

The Atlanta Regional Commission is set to host the Connect ATL summit on Aug. 23 at the Georgia Tech Hotel and Conference Center. The topic will be making the city's transportation network smarter, better connected and electric.

Gosier said she'd like to see the kind of focus happening in Atlanta in more rural areas, and is calling on state leaders to support local towns and counties to be just as innovative. But, she quipped, many rural Georgians also need the basics - such as clean running water - as well as electric-vehicle charging stations.

"When we think about lead pipes needing to be replaced in communities, it's not just impacting Flint, Michigan," she said. "This is something that is an issue all throughout the state of Georgia, and especially in rural areas."

The new PROTECT Formula program funding - short for Promoting Resilient Operations for Transformative, Efficient, and Cost-Saving Transportation - is available to states over five years. The Atlanta Regional Commission plans to use its $45 million to pay for electric buses and charging stations, upgrades to transit infrastructure in Cobb and Clayton counties, and road improvements.

Electric vehicles (EVs) are an economical and environmentally friendly way to get from Point A to Point B, but the lack of charging stations often limits drivers to short trips.

It could soon change, as the West Electric Highway program aims to install fast-charging stations every 50 miles along rural highways in Utah and other Western states. The project is funded through the bipartisan infrastructure law approved by Congress last year.

Tammie Bostick, executive director of the Utah Clean Cities Coalition, the lead agency on the project, said the ChargeWest network will take the worry out of driving an EV across the state.

"When we look at Charge West, it's an opportunity for us to imagine electrified transportation fully and to know that we can travel, with range confidence, to our destinations and be able to return," Bostick explained.

Other participating states include Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico and Wyoming. Bostick pointed out the programs is the first of its type, and hopes it will be a model for other states to follow.

The West Electric Highway program is backed by a coalition of local and state governments, environmental groups and tourism officials.

Bostick emphasized it will particularly benefit Utah's vacation destinations.

"Secondary highways, the scenic highways, the places that lead us to the places that we travel to, which are our national parks, our monuments, our state parks, our recreation areas," Bostick outlined.

Bostick added a major challenge to building the West Electric Highway system is a lack of electrical infrastructure needed to power fast-charging stations in many of the rural areas.

"So that could be building out their existing electrical system, but also to plan for off-grid system systems that are stand alone, that run on solar, that really don't need a large infrastructure to be available," Bostick explained.

The West Electric Highway program is one of the first fast-charging projects approved from the $2.5 billion allocated for projects under the National Electric Vehicle Charging Network.

Connecticut residents can expect to see a sharp increase in diesel fuel prices starting July 1, and trucking companies say it will be passed on to consumers.

The increase of 9 cents per gallon is based on an annual adjustment set by the Department of Revenue Services. Although the state has suspended the gas tax through December, prices continue to rise because of inflation and the price of crude oil.

Wayne Pesce, president of the Connecticut Food Association, which represents grocery retailers and distribution suppliers in the state, said it will lead to more people having to make difficult choices.

"Some of the things we're seeing," he said, "is consumers are trading off both beef and pork - and even poultry, in some instances - and they're eating a lot more rice and pasta, because they're making decisions based on how much income they have to spend on food."

Diesel, the main fuel source for most commercial trucks, also produces emissions harmful to health, including ground-level ozone and particulate matter. As of Wednesday, the average price of diesel in Connecticut was $6.17, 40-cents above the national average.

On top of the July increase, the state also will implement a highway use tax on large commercial trucks starting in January. Michael Fox, executive director of the Gasoline and Automotive Service Dealers of America, which represents hundreds of independently owned gas stations in the state, said suspending the current diesel tax of slightly more than 40 cents per gallon could help Connecticut residents afford basic needs.

"They can also suspend the increase scheduled for July 1," he said. "With over $900 million in budget surplus money, the state can afford to do this. That would be immediate relief for every consumer in the state of Connecticut."

Earlier this month, Gov. Ned Lamont and other state officials announced a diesel fuel tax exemption for farmers and agricultural producers. Fox said they're also calling for suspending the highway use tax, which is based on vehicle weight and ranges from 2.5 cents to 17.5 cents per mile.