Schweitzer: Hey Feds, How About Some Infrastructure
By Robert Struckman, 12-04-08
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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.
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Comments
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.
Feds at this point just cannot practice any common sense.
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.