Untitled

Harm: Economic stagnation; infrastructure
decay
Inherency: Congressional refusal
Solvency:
Michael Likosky, (Sr. Fellow, Institute for
Public Knowledge, New York U.), OBAMA’S
BANK: FINANCING A DURABLE NEW DEAL,
2010, 47. Obama said that his infrastructure
bank would take a government commitment
of sixty billion dollars over ten years and turn
it "into almost half a trillion dollars of
additional infrastructure spending." This
multiplying investment will produce "nearly
two million new jobs."

Harm: Species extinction; human
accident deaths
Inherency: No dedicated funding;
Republican intransigence on
“transportation enhancements”
Solvency:
Lori Hennings, (Sr. Natural Resource
Scientist, Oregon Metro), WILDLIFE
CORRIDORS AND PERMEABILITY: A
LITERATURE REVIEW, April 2010, 19.
Scientists believe that corridors
facilitating wildlife movement will be
necessary for some species' survival. . . .
Connectivity ensures that species can
move to new areas, and "should become
a priority of land management practices.”
http://pcjv.org/docs/Urban

Harm: Global warming; oil depletion
Inherency: No dedicated funding
Solvency:
Lester Brown, (Pres., Earth Policy Institute),
WORLD ON THE EDGE: HOW TO PREVENT
ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC COLLAPSE,
2011, 112. Carbon dioxide emissions per passenger
mile on high-­‐speed trains are roughly one third
those of cars and one fourth those of planes. In the
Plan B economy, carbon emissions from trains will
essentially be zero, since they will be powered by
wind, solar, and geothermal electricity. In addition
to being comfortable and convenient, these rail
links reduce air pollution and congestion.
www.earth-­‐policy.org/

Harm: Global warming; oil depletion; safety
Inherency: Sufficient funding denied
Solvency:
Lorraine Bolsinger, (President, GE Aviation Systems),
NEXT GENERATION AIR TRANSPORTATION
SYSTEM: THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT, 2011, 161.
Transforming our air transportation system has
proven potential to reduce carbon emissions that
threaten our planet. Airspace modernization efforts,
like NextGen, lessen our dependence on foreign oil
that threatens our nation's security and help control
rising energy costs that threaten our wallets and
impact the U.S. job market. For those reasons,
today's hearing, on the long term planning
forNextGen is important and timely.

Harm: Equity
Inherency: Car culture; funding inequity
Solvency:
Nelson/Nygaard Consulting Associates,
STRANDED AT THE STATION: THE IMPACT OF
THE FINANCIAL CRISIS IN PUBLIC
TRANSPORTATION, Aug. 2009, 6. Minorities and
recent immigrants in particular depend on
affordable and reliable transit services to reach
everyday destinations, such as jobs, education and
health care. African-­‐Americans and Hispanics
comprise a majority of the country's transit users,
including 62 percent of bus and light rail riders, 35
percent of subway and heavy rail riders, and 29
percent of commuter rail riders.
www.t4america.org/

Harm: Congestion, accident deaths
Inherency: Political pressure for ribbon-­cutting
Solvency:
Steven Malanga, (Sr. Fellow, Manhattan
Institute), HOW SAFE IS AMERICA’S
INFRASTRUCTURE?, 2009, 77. The stakes are
high. Traffic congestion already costs our
economy about $65 billion a year in lost
productivity. Research also suggests that
every $100 million invested in road
maintenance and repair will save about 145
lives over the next decade.
www.brookings.edu/research/papers/

Harm: Third world hunger
Inherency: Funding neglect
Solvency:
U.S. Department of Agriculture, A RELIABLE
WATERWAY SYSTEM IS IMPORTANT TO
AGRICULTURE, Feb. 2012, 1. The United
States exports approximately one quarter of
the grain it produces. On average, this
includes nearly 45 percent of U.S.-­‐grown
wheat, 35 percent of U.S.-­‐grown soybeans,
and 20 percent of U.S.-­‐grown corn.
www.iatp.org/documents/feeding-­‐the-­‐world

Harm: Nuclear terrorism
Inherency: Coast Guard funding being cut
Solvency:
Pamela Collins, (Prof., Homeland Security,
Eastern Kentucky U.), HOMELAND SECURITY
AND CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE
PROTECTION, 2009, 105. At-­‐sea presence
deters adversaries and lawbreakers, provides
better mobile surveillance coverage, adds to
warning time, allows seizing the initiative to
influence events at a distance, and facilitates
the capability to surprise and engage
adversaries well before they can cause harm
to the United States.

Harm: Obesity, global warming, air pollution, oil
depletion
Inherency: Car culture
Solvency: Michelle Ernst, (Analyst, Transportation for
America), DANGEROUS BY DESIGN, 2011, 21-­‐ 22.
Walking and bicycling to school can help: elementary
and middle school-­‐age boys and girls who walk to and
from school are more physically active overall than
those who travel to school by car or bus. A study of
1,596 middle school-­‐age girls in six states found that
those who reported walking before and after school
had 13.7 more minutes of total physically activity than
those who did not report doing so." And, children who
walk or bicycle to school have better cardiovascular
fitness than do children who do not actively commute
to school.
http://t4america.org/docs/

Harm: Global warming, oil depletion
Inherency: Obama administration ended
hydrogen program
Solvency: Whitney Colella, (Energy Scientist,
Sandia National Laboratory), CLIMATE
CHANGE SCIENCE AND POLICY, 2010, 456.
Using currently available technologies, it is
possible to design a future economy based on
H 2 such that total emissions of greenhouse
gases are reduced to zero. Hydrogen is one of
the only fuels, or "energy carriers," that could
enable this transition to zero emissions
(another being electricity).
http://t4america.org/docs/dbd2011/

Harm: Accidents, economic opportunities denied
Inherency: Treaty obligations ignored
Solvency: Jefferson Keel, (Pres., National Congress
of American Indians), EXAMINING TRIBAL
TRANSPORTATION IN INDIAN COUNTRY, Hrg., Oct.
15, 2010, 17.
State governments spend between $4,000 and
$5,000 per road mile on maintaining state roads and
highways. While in Indian Country, by contrast, road
maintenance funding is less than $500 spent per road
mile. Indian Country has an unmet immediate need
of well over $258 million in maintenance funding for
roads and bridges, and $310 million in unmet need
for new roads and bridges projects.
www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/

Harm: Passenger exposure to radiation
Inherency: Homeland Security insistence that
X-­‐ray backscatter scanners are safe
Solvency: David Brenner, (Prof., Radiation
Biophysics, Columbia U.), TSA OVERSIGHT,
Mar. 16, 2011, 6. If there were no feasible
alternatives to x-­‐ray backscatter scanners, it
could certainly be argued that such population
risks would be more than balanced by the
associated benefits of reducing the risk of a
terrorist event. However, millimeter wave
scanners are a feasible and practical whole-­body
scanning technology which does not
involve ionizing radiation, and for which there is
currently essentially no mechanistic or
experimental evidence of biological risks.
www.herca.org/documents/Fact

Harm: Global warming
Inherency: Lack of pipeline capacity
Solvency:
Chris Goodall, (Chair, Dynmark International
Limited), TEN TECHNOLOGIES TO SAVE
THE PLANET, 2010, 207. When injected into
these reservoirs, the carbon dioxide will
dissolve in the water, forming carbonic acid.
In some rock types, such as basalts, this acid
will then combine with minerals in the rock
to form very stable carbonates, effectively
locking up the carbon dioxide forever.
www.alaskadispatch.com/article/carbon-­‐dioxide

Harm: Accidents, environmental harm of oil spills
Inherency: Only a small percentage inspected
Solvency:
Frank Lautenberg, (U.S. Sen., New Jersey),
ENSURING THE SAFETY OF OUR NATION'S
PIPELINES, Hrg., June 24, 2010, 1. The fact is that
while pipelines are by and large a safe form of
transportation, when there is an accident the
consequences can be deadly. There are nearly 2.5
million miles of pipelines today moving oil and gas
within states and across the country. We've got to
do all that we can to keep these pipelines safe and
to reduce the frequency of accidents.
www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/

Harm: Accidents
Inherency: Funding limitations
Solvency: Andrew Hermann, (Board Member,
American Society of Civil Engineers), HOW
SAFE IS AMERICA’S INFRASTRUCTURE?,
2009, 29. A thorough review of the current
bridge inspection requirement seems
appropriate and there must be greater
emphasis on the steps needed to address a
structurally deficient bridge once it has been
classified. ASCE strongly supports a
requirement that bridge inspections be
performed by licensed professional engineers
who are certified bridge inspectors.
http://t4america.org/docs/bridgereport/

Harm: Economic competitiveness
Inherency: East coast ports not deep enough for
new ships after Panama Canal renovations
Solvency: DREDGING TODAY, Apr. 6, 2012.
Retrieved June 23, 2012 from http://
www.dredgingtoday.com/. As chairman of the
National Maritime Policy Council, former Governor
Barbour urged Congress and President Obama to
focus on several goals: Declare port modernization
and channel deepening a project of National
Economic Significance, vital to U.S. global
competitiveness and national security as well as
set a goal to coincide with the opening of the
expanded Panama Canal in 2015. Increase
Federal investment in port infrastructure and
expedited utilization of the Harbor Maintenance
Trust Funds for dredging.
www.usatoday.com/news/nation/

Harm: Russian dominance in the energy-­‐rich and
environmentally-­‐sensitive Arctic region
Inherency: Limited Alaskan resources
Solvency: Alaska Northern Waters Task Force,
FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS, Jan. 2012,
v. Immediate investment in Arctic infrastructure is
a foremost priority for Alaska and the entire
United States. Increased human activity related to
shipping, oil and gas development, commercial
fishing, and tourism will require, at a minimum,
new ports and safe harbors, equipment and
facilities for oil spill response, additional Polar
Class icebreakers for the U.S. fleet, and improved
charting and mapping.
www.housemajority.org/coms/anw/pdfs/

Harm: Congestion; Accidents
Inherency: Gas tax insufficiency
Solvency: Petra Todorovich, (Dir.,
America2050), HIGH-­‐SPEED RAIL:
INTERNATIONAL LESSONS FOR U.S.
POLICY MAKERS, 2011, 47. If the federal
government switched from the current
gas tax to a tax based on vehicle miles
traveled (VMT) and two-­‐tenths of a penny
per mile were dedicated to passenger rail,
$5.4 billion could be generated every year.
The VMT tax as a source of transportation
funding is supported by many
transportation policy leaders, but has been
disavowed by the Obama administration.
http://vtrc.virginiadot.org/rsb/RSB19.pdf

Harm: Accidents, economic limitations
Inherency: Short-­‐term focus, rather than
long-­‐term planning
Solvency:
Thom Patterson, (Staff, CNN), SOLAR
POWERED SMART ROADS, Jan. 19, 2011.
Retrieved June 20, 2012 from
www.cnn.com. Brusaw believes that solar
roadways -­‐-­‐ if widely accepted -­‐-­‐ could
eventually generate clean electricity
around the world, eliminating the need
for fossil fuels and saving the planet from
global climate change.
www.cnn.com/2011/TECH/innovation/

Harm: Accidents, military readiness
Inherency: Doubling of congestion requirement
Solvency: See National Defense Authorization
Act For Fiscal Year 2012 (See HR 1450 – 112 th
Congress in Thomas) Public Law 112-­‐81: (a)
AVAILABILITY OF DEFENSE ACCESS ROADS
FUNDS FOR BRACRELATED
TRANSPORTATION IMPROVEMENTS.—
Section 210(a)(2) of title 23, United States Code,
is amended by adding at the end the following
new sentence: ‘‘The Secretary of Defense shall
determine the magnitude of the required
improvements without regard to the extent to
which traffic generated by the reservation is
greater than other traffic in the vicinity of the
reservation.’’.
www2.insidenova.com/news/2011/

Harm: Global warming, oil depletion
Inherency: Funding neglect
Solvency: David Findley, (Scientist, Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory), THE POST
CARBON READER: MANAGING THE 21 ST
CENTURY’S SUSTAINABILITY CRISIS, 2010, 233.
Electric-­‐car development would require extensive
infrastructure changes, including: Retooling of
factories to produce the vehicles; Development
of a large-­‐scale battery industry; Development of
recharging facilities; Deployment of instruments
for the maintenance and repair of such vehicles; A
spare-­‐parts industry; "Smart-­‐grid" monitoring
and control software and equipment; Even more
generation and transmission facilities to supply
the additional electricity demand.
www.eaton.com/Electrical/USA/

Harm: Global warming, oil depletion
Inherency: NASA funding neglect
Solvency: Moon mining, energy
transport from space-­‐based solar
satellites, exploration of Mars, etc.
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/SEV.html