Infrastructure Renewal: The Need for Political Leadership

The National Academy of Science (2007) publication, Rising above the Gathering Storm, cites two key challenges for the nation that are tied to science and engineering: the creation of quality jobs and the need for clean and reliable energy. I would suggest that meeting the second challenge will satisfy the first. This then leads to an initiative that involves clean, plentiful, and affordable energy, which I believe to be the nation’s most pressing need.

This critical issue can be best dealt with as a presidential initiative, on the order of those mentioned previously, that may be stated as follows: “The United States of America will achieve energy independence by the year 2060 with an accompanying decrease in greenhouse gas production of 90 percent below the current levels by the same year.”

Energy independence is the space race of today. There was much more to President Kennedy’s initiative than placing a man on the moon. This was the clarion call for a national focus that included improved education, more scientists and engineers, increased research, and far-reaching technologies—all of which we benefit from today. Such an initiative, if announced today, would necessarily require the development of new and a renewal of the existing infrastructure.

Looking at the great presidential initiatives mentioned previously reveals that each of them, in some way, had major infrastructure components. President Roosevelt’s New Deal through the Public Works Administration (abolished 1941) and the (still existing) Tennessee Valley Authority constructed airports, schools, hospitals, bridges, roads, tunnels, ports, public buildings, and most famously, a great number of dams (including the Bonneville and Grand Coulee dams) that provided flood control and cheap energy to improve the welfare of the nation and encourage industrial expansion. This was especially true in the Pacific Northwest where inexpensive hydroelectric power lead to the expansion of the aluminum smelting industry in that region. The construction of these infrastructure projects, requiring a significant federal investment, provided much needed jobs during the height of the Depression, and certainly improved the quality of life for many citizens of this country.

By signing the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, President Eisenhower built upon the efforts of many before him and began the construction of the National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. This is certainly a presidential initiative that focuses on a key national infrastructure component. Not only did this initiative create many thousands of jobs, but it contributed significantly to the post-World War II economic expansion of the United States. Unfortunately, due to decay and lack of capacity, this great interstate highway system is becoming a serious economic bottleneck.

President Kennedy’s vision of placing a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s had an impact on a different type of infrastructure: the computational and information infrastructure that we enjoy today through personal computers, music devices, the Internet, etc. This initiative also had the effect of leading a generation of young people into science and engineering, which certainly has contributed to the development of this nation’s infrastructure.

As part of President Johnson’s Great Society, several pieces of legislation, including the Water Quality Act of 1956 and the Clean Water Restoration Act of 1966, were built upon and provided continuing impetus toward the construction of water and wastewater treatment plants, providing needed infrastructure over much of the country and improving the water quality of the nation.

To accomplish the initiative of energy independence and reduced greenhouse gas production, the nation’s infrastructure will have to be transformed. Transportation and buildings create this country’s largest need for energy and produce large amounts of greenhouse gases. While vehicles are changing to new forms of power production, the roadway infrastructure must be reconstructed in such a way that allows vehicular and roadway communication and even energy transfer. The roadways of the future will interact with the vehicle and driver, providing information and control that will increase the safety and efficiency of our roadways. There is also the potential for electric cars to receive energy through the roadway, reducing the need for battery capacity and almost limitlessly extending the range of electric vehicles. However, these scenarios must be taken into consideration today as we look toward the ominous task of rebuilding and expanding the nation’s system of roadways. If, as we rebuild our nation’s roadways, we wait until the types of technologies just described are a reality, then it will be too late and the utilization of these advanced technologies will be delayed.

The investment that will be required to reconstruct the highway system in a manner compatible to future automobile technologies will be beyond that which the highway trust fund can provide; thus significant investment from federal general funds will be required. This is an additional reason why highway infrastructure renewal must be couched as part of a broader national initiative.

Beginning even today, our buildings must be constructed using revolutionary designs and materials. The LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) program is a very good start in providing guidelines for energy efficient buildings; however, research in construction materials and processes must be continued to create more potential for energy efficiency in buildings, from the manufacture of building materials through to the life of a building. This effort would be a significant part of an energy independence and greenhouse gas reduction initiative.

As vehicles move to the use of electricity as a principal energy source, the demand for electricity within this country will necessarily rise. This will require the updating of older facilities and the construction of new production and distribution infrastructure. An expansion in the use of solar, wind, and even wave power along with coal, natural gas, and nuclear facilities must all be considered in order to achieve energy independence. However, much research must be done to create more efficiencies in the creation of electricity from solar, wind, and wave energy. Certainly, much of the increased demand could be met through the use of coal and nuclear energy; but to meet the goal of reduced greenhouse gas production significant investment and continued research is needed to ensure that emissions from coal fired plants are correspondingly reduced. The issue of reducing the amounts of nuclear wastes (and storing those wastes that are produced) must also be dealt with in the production of nuclear energy. Funding for the needed expansion of the electrical energy system would have to be provided through the presidential initiative.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, our water infrastructure must be rebuilt, water sources protected, and water usage reduced. In the quest for energy independence, water may be our most valuable resource. Just maintaining the current levels of safety in drinking water and the treatment of waste will require a major investment by the federal government. To meet increased demands due to energy production, population growth and environmental concerns will require even more willingness to invest in the nation’s water infrastructure.

All of these infrastructure renewal and expansion efforts, each of which is essential to the achievement of energy independence and reduced greenhouse gas production, along with the research necessary to develop yet unknown processes and technologies that will aid in this effort, will require a federal investment in the trillions of dollars. The only way to ensure this level of funding for these efforts is through a presidential initiative with the power and influence behind it that only the president can provide, and that is supported and funded by the Congress of the United States—the holder of the purse strings. This type of financial investment by Congress and the president is essential, but the return on such an investment is incalculable. The fulfillment of such a presidential initiative will create a more independent United States, with a stronger, more resilient economy, a cleaner environment, and a better quality of life than has been seen for decades. This is truly a legacy that each of us desires to leave our posterity.

There is a dire need for a major presidential initiative that calls for national energy independence and a reduction in the production of greenhouse gases. This initiative would impact all aspects of the American way of life. The path to energy independence and reduced greenhouse gas production will have the same long-lasting impacts as did the space race. The research that must be conducted, the technologies that must be developed, the infrastructure that must be transformed, and the changes that society will undergo will have influence over this nation for generations to come.

Such an initiative will require an improved K-12 educational system that must provide to our universities the students who will become the scientists and engineers that will be needed. These must be the world’s best scientists and engineers, once again placing the United States as the best educated country in the world.

A necessary part of such an initiative would be the reconstruction and expansion of the nation’s infrastructure, from schools to electric power facilities to new high-tech roadways to water treatment facilities, all of which are essential and would have to be of designs heretofore unseen. The only way that such a massive infrastructure improvement and expansion could be carried out would be as part of a major national initiative, announced by the president, through which the president and Congress commit funding toward the accomplishment of the initiative and thereby fund the required infrastructure.

Great presidents of the past recognized the fact that their greatest accomplishments may not be realized during their term, or maybe even their lifetime. Our new president must accept this fact and place the challenge of energy independence and reduced greenhouse gas production before the citizens of this nation, with all that this entails, acknowledging that they may never see the attainment of the dream, but knowing that the future will prove their greatness.

Certainly, President Kennedy understood the risk of setting a goal such as putting a man on the moon. But without risk there is no reward, and without a deadline there is no urgency. We must not fear failures—there were certainly some tragic ones in the space race. But failures are necessary for success.

The only way to marshal and coordinate all of the national assets, both public and private, that will be required to reach energy independence and a reduction in greenhouse gas production with the corresponding infrastructure improvements, is through a presidential initiative. The president commands the bully pulpit and announces the national agenda. Infrastructure initiatives must be at the top of that agenda.

Our posterity will judge our day by the type of world we leave them with. Will it be a cleaner world with a better quality of life, or a dirty world filled with desperation?