Infrastructure (Again and again)

 

 

"You can only push the envelope so far before it starts to rip..."

I had not planned to address this issue this week. However, after this weekend, some things happened which changed my mind. Our aging infrastructure is a huge problem that needs attention, and needs attention now. What am I talking about? Consider what I heard just this weekend.

• EMP - I happened to watch Judge Jeanine Pirro on Fox this weekend. It is a show I do not usually watch on the weekend. In the feature article on her show, the Judge was almost in a panic. It seems she recently attended a briefing on the vulnerability of our electric grid. She found out the very scary truth - an EMP, natural or mad made, would take down our grid. The result - millions of innocent people would die a very unpleasant death. The irony - this is a inexpensive and fixable problem. It would cost under $1B to harden and make robust our entire grid. Why are not we doing it? Beats me.
• Natural Gas - We are quickly becoming the Saudi Arabia of oil and gas in this part of the world. Even with the Administration doing everything in its power to stop it, we will become an energy exporting country by the end of the decade. That being said, we still have problems getting product from Point "A" to Point "B". During the past few days we have had a pipeline explosion in Canada which as put part of our country into a "energy emergency". We need more and better pipelines, and we need them now. Build the Keystone XL, and do it yesterday!
• Rand Paul - The good doctor was on a Sunday news show. It seems Sen. Paul believes there is common ground in working with the other side in updating our aging infrastructure. His solution to fund this endeavor (which I agree with), is to use funds that have been earmarked for countries which hate us. We should use those funds here instead.

We do have a problem with our infrastructure. We can ignore it, but it will not go away. Our water mains, our bridges, some of our highways, OUR GRID, and our pipelines all need to be updated.

Gosh, if this was addressed in the State of the Union this week, it is probably something that could actually get done! We need to stop "re-engineering" our country and update it instead. One low tech EMP device, used by semi-skilled terrorists, could put us back in the 1800's quicker than you could say the word HARDEN! We can't let that happen!