RE: Patt Morrison for Monday, February 27, 2012

PATT MORRISON SCHEDULE

Monday, February 27, 2012

1-3 p.m.

 

CALL-IN @ 866-893-5722, 866-893-KPCC; OR JOIN THE CONVERSATION ONLINE ON THE PATT MORRISON BLOG AT KPCC-DOT-ORG

 

 

 

1:06 –1:58:30 OPEN

 

2:06 – 2:30

Will your Prius bankrupt our highways?
The money that funds America’s highways could completely run out by 2013. What’s the primary cause? In part, fuel efficient cars. Many owners of hybrid or electric cars, such as the Toyota Prius or the Chevy Volt, feel good about driving a modern fuel-efficient vehicle – supporting innovation, helping the environment, or reducing American dependence on foreign oil. However, what many hybrid drivers may not realize is that using a fuel efficient car could literally bankrupt the United States highway infrastructure. Federal highways are directly funded by taxes paid at the fuel pump that go into a Highway Trust Fund, so the less fuel Americans use, the less money the Federal Highway Administration has to maintain public freeways. The fact that the tax has not been adjusted for inflation since 1993 isn’t helping matters and now the White House is pushing for fuel economy standards to require cars and light trucks to average 54.5 mpg by 2035, which is a much more ambitious plan than officials anticipated. Some alternative funding systems that have been considered include taxing drivers based on how many miles they drive or tolling motorists who drive during peak hours, but Congress has yet to settle on a solid solution. Should drivers of fuel efficient cars somehow be forced pay more for using federal highways? If the U.S. cannot raise enough funds to maintain highways through its fuel tax, how else can the necessary revenue be generated? Why is Congress dragging its feet to resolve this issue?

Guest:
Barry LePatner, author “Too Big to Fall: America’s Failing Infrastructure and the Way Forward”

2:30 – 2:39 OPEN

 

2:41:30 – 2:58:30

Anne Rice talks about her return to the supernatural

After nearly a decade of novels based on the gospels and the life of Christ, Anne Rice has returned to the genre that made her famous: Gothic horror. In her newest work, “The Wolf Gift,” the best-selling author of “Interview with the Vampire” and its spawn, the Vampire Chronicles, tackles a new supernatural subculture: werewolves.  The protagonist of “The Wolf Gift,” Reuben Golding, is a “Man Wolf” (or Morphenkinder); the transformation he undergoes is due to a virus transmitted through saliva, “perfected” through a series of experiments by an ancient king, who wanted to harness the virus’ transformative effects for good instead of evil – themes that Rice returns to over and over again, despite the genre she’s writing. In 2010, Rice broke with the Catholic Church – having rejoined a decade earlier – telling NPR’s Michele Norris, "Certainly I will never go back to being that atheist and that pessimist that I was. I live now in a world that I feel God created, and I feel I live in a world where God witnesses everything that happens… That's a huge change from the atheist I was when I wrote the vampire novels." Join Patt as she asks Rice how “The Wolf Gift” differs from her previous works, and where the author thinks she go from here.

 

Guests: Anne Rice, best-selling author of “Interview with the Vampire.”  Her newest novel is “The Wolf Gift.”