Sen. Hillary Clinton (D) rallied support on Sept. 12 for a $1.7 billion federal investment in mass transit projects in New York and throughout the country.

“We are gathered in the heart of New York’s public transit system at a crucial moment for public transportation,” Clinton said as she called on her fellow senators to back the “Saving Energy Through Public Transportation Act of 2008,” a bill she introduced to the Senate in August.

As she stood under the clock at Grand Central Station, Senator Clinton was flanked by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan/Queens), State Sen. Liz Krueger (D-Manhattan, Assembly Member Jonathan Bing (D-Manhattan), MTA Executive Director Elliot Sander and City Department of Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, along with representatives from mass-transit advocacy groups and local unions.

“One of the best ways we can save money, help the environment,  reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and free our roads up is by investing in mass transit,” Clinton said to a throng of supporters and passersby who had gathered in the station’s main concourse to  hear the senator speak.

The legislation, which has already passed in the House, would earmark $270 million for New York’s srtruggling transit infrastructure, yet with the MTA saddled with roughly $24 billion in debt, the proposed federal money would represent only a fraction of costs associated with new projects. 

Clinton insisted that government needed to do more to develop mass transit infrastructure nationwide, to reduce carbon emissions and create ‘green-collar’ jobs.  

“China is currently spending nine percent of its total GDP on infrastructure, and India is spending five percent. We spend just barely two percent, and it shows,” Clinton said.

At the end of the press conference Mrs. Clinton fielded several questions about the presidential election but wouldn’t comment specifically on recent events, outside of offering a full-throated endorsement of the Obama/Biden ticket.

Clinton closed her comments back on the message of infrastructure investment saying, “Let’s get off this energy dependence and start acting like Americans again, where we create millions of new jobs and take our destiny back into our own hands.”