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The price of environmentalism has always concerned conservatives, but now even New Jersey Democrats are getting upset about the costs on taxpayers under the guise of helping curb emissions. Federal transportation officials have green lighted New York's plan to charge escalating congestion tolls for drivers entering parts of Manhattan and New Jersey Democrats are "outraged," Politico reported. Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., expressed their disappointment the Federal Highway Administration has allowed the New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority's congestion pricing to go forward without more review and environmental studies. The MTA is considering...

PRESIDENT Barack Obama was fined £120 ($193) for not paying the London congestion charge during his state visit to Britain, The Sun reported today. The President was hit with the penalty for his motorcade. London mayor Boris Johnson wanted the £10 ($15) congestion fee to be paid for the President's armor-plated limo - dubbed "The Beast" - and all other cars during his visit in May. But cameras only managed to photograph one of the vehicles in Obama's motorcade because they were driving so close together. That is the subject of the $193 fine.

President confronted by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, over America’s failure to pay the congestion charge. Amid all the glad-handing and rictus grins that greeted Barack Obama everywhere he turned during his whistlestop visit to the British Isles, Boris Johnson will undoubtedly have made a particular impression upon him. At the end of the state banquet in the president’s honour at Buckingham Palace, the Mayor of London took the opportunity to have a quick word. “Could you please write me out a cheque for £5 million?” Johnson asked him. The request for the president to settle the congestion charge bill...

(11-23) 18:07 PST -- The idea of making San Francisco the first city in the nation to combat congestion by imposing a toll on motorists who drive on the local roads is "totally doable" from an administrative standpoint, a top city transportation official deemed. But clearing the necessary political and public opinion hurdles is another matter altogether. Charging people more for anything is always a tough sell. Talk about reaching deeper into people's pockets when the economy is in the tank is even more difficult. "We're going to have to get buy-in," said Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the...

It is the ultimate list of rogue states: the countries whose diplomats repeatedly refuse to pay the congestion charge stumped up by every ordinary motorist in London. And it is no surprise to the mayor, Ken Livingstone, that the serial offender topping the non-payment charts for the last six months is the United States, whose ambassador he memorably likened to a "chiselling little crook" for his refusal to pay the £8-a-day charge. Narrowly ahead of other paragons of international respectability - Nigeria, Angola and Sudan - the US embassy racked up £271,000 in fines over the last six months, according...