NATIONAL NEWS

Business Journal: $200B Expected for Smart-Grid Technology
http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2009/12/28/daily8.html
Governments and utilities are expected to spend a cumulative $200 billion on smart-grid technologies from 2008 through 2015, according to a report released Monday by Pike Research.  The Boulder, Colo.-based research firm found that utilities will find the best return on their investment, and predicted they’ll invest most of their capital budgets in smart-grid infrastructure projects.

STATE NEWS

Asbury Park Press: States Worry About Federal Transportation Funds
http://www.app.com/article/20091227/NEWS/912270340/States-worry-about-federal-transportation-funds
The Obama administration says states shouldn't fret that 2010 will begin without a federal transportation law to replace the one that expired in September. But there's plenty of fretting anyway.Planning for a new bridge, highway interchange or light rail line typically takes years, and states need to know early how much the federal government will chip in, transportation groups and state officials say. Otherwise, uncertainty puts the planning process on hold and pushes back construction dates.

The Dallas Morning News: Hutchison Lays Out Transportation Plan for Texas
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D9CT501G2.html
U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison vowed Tuesday to "clean up" the Texas Department of Transportation, reduce traffic congestion and start building a high-speed rail network connecting Dallas, Houston and San Antonio if she is elected Texas governor. The senior U.S. senator from Texas gave little detail on how to pay for it all, saying she'll focus first on eliminating wasteful spending and inefficiencies in management. After that, if her proposed special transportation committee recommends new taxes or fees, she would put the issue before voters in regional referendums.

Daily News: Stimulus Cash a Building Block for State
http://www.wickedlocal.com/norton/news/x980513973/Stimulus-cash-a-building-block-for-state
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and other state politicians have been increasingly looking to construction work as a way to boost unemployment and the state economy.  About $503 million of the $4 billion in stimulus money the state has received has gone to infrastructure projects. Jeffrey Simon, director of the Massachusetts Reinvestment and Recovery Office, said the state plans on committing all of its $437 million in stimulus highway funds by January.  But the results are less spectacular. Simon estimated that, as of this month, federal stimulus funds have helped retain some 1,450 construction jobs and created about 410 new jobs in that category.  Despite the modest numbers, the Patrick administration and others still hope that by spending federal stimulus funds on projects such as the state's deteriorating roads and bridges the construction jobs will come back.