Schweitzer: Hey Feds, How About Some Infrastructure
By Robert Struckman, 12-04-08
Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who was just voted head of the National Governors Association, wants the administration of Barack Obama to help Montana to build an electrical transmission line to deliver electricity produced in the state to markets across the country.
“Montana is dead center in the middle of the most important energy corridor on the planet,” Schweitzer said. “We’re ready, willing and able to lead the country and world in developing energy.”
But Schweitzer doesn’t want the Obama administration to tell him how or where the energy should be developed. Schweitzer and other governors also asked for major investments for roads and bridges and other infrastructure.
“We will do it on our own terms,” Schweitzer said. “We’re not giving up our quality-of-life to develop energy for the rest of the country. We’re willing to lead with wind energy… and clean coal, but we need help from the federal government.”
Specifically, Schweitzer said he wants the federal government to move quickly to invest $15 billion over the next 10 years to, among other things, build transmission infrastructure and develop clean coal technology. He said Montana’s coal can be used for electricity and its carbon can be sequestered.
“We will be partners, but we want to be partners. We’re done with the time when D.C. tells us in the West what our backyards will look like. We’re plenty capable of figuring it out on our own,” he said.
[End of article]If we're going to invest in infrastructure, I believe it would be vital to get America's railroad system up and running with 21st century technology. This would not only create many thousands of jobs, it could be the most environmentally sound transit system in the world. I believe that this should be our nation's largest project for the next decade. It would bring the country together and show the world what we can do. Now that we have a new administration, the time has come.
Comment By JAYoung, 12-05-08Agreed, and we should use existing railroad (and highway) rights of way for transportation, communications and power corridors. Superconductor technology is available to put the new grid underground, which would eliminate both much of the maintenance and much of the objection to new routes. High-tension towers are just so 20th century...
Comment By jedediah Redman, 12-05-08Hear! Hear!! HEAR!!!
Comment By RockyMountainBen, 12-05-08ALL ABOARD!!
Lets get an alternative to costly, unsafe and time intensive air/car travel. We need fast, safe, and reliable trains with connecting coach buses to cities/towns the trains do not serve. This is what we should have built in the 1950s/60s instead of the interstate highway system, which has turned out to be nothing but a dead end technology.
Our Montana governor is right on and should continue to seek federal dollars but maintain our State independence. It seems the
Feds at this point just cannot practice any common sense.
The economic crisis our country faces is rooted in over-consumption and over-development. More of the same is simply not going to work.
I believe that all "bailouts" or "stimulus" packages should be put through a sustainability filter. For example, giving the Big Three automakers tens of billions of taxpayer dollars to produce more gas hogs that nobody wants really isn't a sensible solution for anyone, except perhaps a few corporate executives.
I would even go so far as to advocate that all federal funding, period, needs to go through a sustainability filter. Obama has promised a "clean and green" energy future and the bailout (which some say will reach 8 trillion dollars when all is said and done) represents the best way to kick start that transformation and also create the jobs of the future in the process.
If we're going to use this money on infrastructure projects in Montana and other states, let's make sure we are building the type of clean, green and sustainable infrastructure needed for the 21st century and beyond and not just pouring billions of billions more into an out-dated energy, transportation and food infrastructure.