A Transportation Follow-Up

Ray LaHood, the Secretary for the Department of Transportation, recently noted on his own blog that in the course of his meetings with city officials at last week’s U.S. Conference of Mayors, their primary concern was about transportation (and infrastructure).

These are the elected men and women closest to everyday life for Americans and the ones most directly responsible for ensuring our citizens and industries are properly provided for. They recognize that the only way for this nation to remain competitive—thus helping to ensure a decent standard of living for all us us—is to focus attention, resources, and money on improving the quality (and modes) of transportation while maintaining a solid infrastructure. They also are quite clear in recognizing that guidance, support, and planning must originate at a higher level than city or town government.

Perhaps it’s time we all recognize what they clearly already know: we don’t have valid or viable options other than to spend more money on the fundamentals of our industrialized society. Howl all you want about debt and deficits and all the rest—however legitimate those concerns may be in their own right—we’ll put people back to work and chart a better course for our future in a world of declining fossil fuel resources not by cutting back or doing as little as possible.

Hypocritical “Pledges” that a third grade math student can see mean nothing and an uninvolved federal government are definitely not the solutions. There are no easy or inexpensive or quick fixes, and the sooner this is understood and accepted, the sooner we all begin the heavy lifting needed to deal with the challenges of a post-peak oil world and an infrastructure desperately in need of revitalization.

It’s time to stop pretending that we don’t still have fundamental problems requiring long-term national commitments and efforts. We might also consider suggesting to our political “leaders” as well that they—and we—could profit from perspective and understanding that extends beyond later next week. We’re past the point of tolerating the idiotic political sound bite that appeases only the uninformed. Our leaders need to lead. Pandering cannot continue to be a strategy, although I hold out little hope that that will change any time soon.

“Whether it is massive investment in new fuels or massive investment in redesigning cities, it is likely that governments will need to take a role in preparing for peak oil if they wish to avoid major economic dislocations.” [1]

“The nation’s ports, inland waterways, drinking water and wastewater systems — you name it — are hurting to one degree or another.
“Ignoring these problems imperils public safety, diminishes our economic competitiveness, is penny-wise and pound-foolish, and results in tremendous missed opportunities to create new jobs on a vast scale. [2]

And with the onset of Peak Oil, the need to revitalize the framework from which our production arises is all the more critical, especially when we come to recognize that in a future with limited fossil fuel availability, a repaired and/or revised infrastructure not dependent on fossil fuel resources for maintenance will be a key determinant in measuring progress and success—as will a transportation system not as utterly dependent on fossil fuels as what we now utilize. The time to develop the infrastructure and upgrade the modes of transportation we’ll need in a post-peak oil economy is now.

As it is, we’re looking at years (decades) of effort and expenditures. Compressing all of those responsibilities and requirements into a much shorter time frame resulting from a legitimate supply and demand crisis some years down the road is insane and quite likely impossible. We can’t afford to wait for that moment.

“Tomorrow’s energy contracts won’t be won by the country with yesterday’s energy grid.” [3]

“Other nations around the globe have continued to act on the calculus that state-of-the art transportation infrastructure — the connective tissue of a nation — is critical to moving goods, ideas and workers quickly and efficiently. In the United States, however, we seem to have forgotten.” [4]

We need to start remembering what those other nations already know.

Peak Oil Matters