It's too early to give the Obama administration any grades, but the nation's infrastructure is another story. The American Society of Civil Engineers released a report last week assigning a low mark of D for America's bridges and roads. It's worth thinking about the next time someone in Congress yells about pork barrel spending.
One in four of the nation's bridges are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete say the Engineers. Another word for that is Dangerous. One third of the country's major roads are in poor or mediocre condition -- which is to say Dangerous, again. Because of aging systems, billions of gallons of untreated waste-water end up in streams and rivers every year. Billions of gallons. Does anyone hear disease?
The Civil Engineers give the state of the nation's levees its very own D minus and note that many of America's 100,000 miles of levees are over 50 years old. Not so reassuringly, they say their reliability is unknown. The cost of repairing the levees? $100 billion. The cost of not repairing them -- well, ask anyone from New Orleans.
According to reports, Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Wash is seeking to add $25 billion in infrastructure projects for highways, mass transit, and water.
No doubt the right will be yelling pork all the way to the very next bailed out bank.
To keep things in perspective, $25 billion's nice, but it's nowhere near the $2.2 trillion that the engineers say we need over just the next five years.
Republicans screech about $25 billion for infrastructure yet proudly refer to the National Petroleum Council’s 2007 tome Hard Truths which says we will have enough oil for the next thirty years if we invest 100s of billions in new drilling and refining capacity.
Without flinching the reports states that “a stable and attractive investment climate will be necessary to attract adequate capital for evolution and expansion of the energy infrastructure.”
We will have oil as long as we pay for the drilling (at the gas pump) and provide security through our military. The report is a big plea for thirty more years of corporate handouts and Republicans wave copies in front of C Span cameras.
The hard truth is the kick backs for drilling are much bigger than those for building bridges. President Obama can not defeat the graft and greed on his own. The people have to stick together and pour the pressure on. We are riding a 20th century country fairly deep into the 21st. It is time to get off oil and build a nation that can thrive in the newly competitive world.
They Say Nothing
By TheySayNothing on February 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm