…just a way to allow the nation to fall into disrepair?
We’re now ranked 23rd in the world in terms of infrastructure. The American Society of Civil Engineers recently gave the U.S. a D on its report card for infrastructure. Among the most developed countries in the world, we’ve fallen way behind. The age of our country’s coal plants averages in the 40-year range, with a number of plants at the 50-60 year mark. And our electric grid is behind other countries. We have trouble figuring out where we have an outage and connecting renewables.
Take a look at the transportation network. Siemens developed a train in 1903 that would go 150 miles per hour; now we’re manufacturing trains that go 230 miles an hour. But in the U.S., trains rarely get above 100 miles an hour because the tracks and control systems are so old. In Germany, they run light rail, medium-speed rail, high-speed rail, and freight rail all on the same tracks, using sophisticated control technology to move trains on and off the tracks. We’re way behind.
Then there’s the aging water infrastructure. When a pipe burst in Vermont, the mayor said, “That pipe’s been here since the war.” Senator Bernie Sanders who was visiting the small town asked, “What war?” The mayor said, “The Civil War.” We just did a green cities index for 22 cities in the US and five in Canada, and one of the criteria we looked at was water management. Some cities were very good, but others were equivalent to cities in developing countries.
This is just one more good reason to elect a Republican who will help maintain the status quo and our potholes.
