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NEPA Implications of Uinta Basin Rail Win at the Supreme Court

When the public-private partnership (P3) to deliver the Uinta Basin rail project awarded a series of construction contracts in mid-2022, it appeared poised to do the impossible: actually start construction on the 88-mile freight rail line in Utah, which various sponsors had been trying to build since at least the 1980’s. In May, the project […]

PWF Book Review: Why Nothing Works

When New York City implemented its new congestion pricing program earlier this year, opponents tried to block it in court citing violations of a law familiar to American infrastructure practitioners: the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). As in many other NEPA lawsuits against infrastructure projects, those opponents claimed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) didn’t […]

Lessons from the IIJA: Inflation and Federal Infrastructure Legislation

There is still more than a year and a half of spending remaining on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), but it is already time to start considering what comes after. On Capitol Hill, hearings are already underway to start crafting the next major surface transportation bill. Debates over what the IIJA got right, […]

Muni Bond Tax Exemption — Back to the Chopping Block?

Advocates for the muni bond industry have mobilized to protect tax exemption for state and local municipal bonds, as Republicans advance their “big beautiful” reconciliation bill this spring. Is muni tax exemption on the chopping block? Again?

Permitting Up in the Air as Trump Admin Takes Office

The first few weeks of the second Trump administration have been busy to say the least. Included among the dozens of executive orders from the first week of the administration was a day 1 order with significant implications for project permitting in the United States. While the order, titled “Unleashing American Energy,” was ostensibly focused […]

P3 Trends into a New Year, New Administration

2024 marked a year of significant shifts in the public-private partnership (P3) industry in the United States. Some of those trends are going to continue playing out in 2025, while others remain uncertain. This is a year in review based on what PWF covered in 2024, and what we’re watching out for in 2025.

Draft Federal Value for Money Guidelines Open for Comment

At long last, the Build America Bureau (BAB) has released draft Value for Money (VfM) analysis guidance that it was required to develop as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). The BIL created new requirements for public sponsors to apply VfM studies to new categories of projects, and tasked the BAB to develop new […]

Uinta Basin Rail P3 Goes to (the Supreme) Court

PWF first covered the Uinta Basin rail P3 project because, if it ever happens, it would be the first new freight rail line built in the United States in at least three decades. The proposed 88-mile line in Utah made significant predevelopment progress as a public-private partnership in 2021 and 2022, but it is currently […]

Commentary: New Regulatory Risk for P3 Advisors

The P3 advisory industry is waking up to a new source of regulatory risk, based on remarks from a senior Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official in September. The crux of the new risk: according to the SEC, some P3 advisors may be “unregistered entities engaging in municipal advisory activity.” The remarks were part of […]

PWF Interview: Shawn Wilson on the IIJA at Three

Shawn Wilson was Louisiana’s Secretary of the Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) from 2016 to 2023. In that role he created the agency’s Office of Innovative Procurement and initiated the first public-private partnership procurements in the state’s history, including the Calcasieu River Bridge Project, which just reached financial close last month. In 2020, he […]