[Leanan]

You realize that article is written by Jerome "No dinosaur ever walked on the bottom of the ocean, therefore oil is abiotic" Corsi, don't you?

[emersonbiggins]

From Corsi's article:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A') good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.

[cube]

I read about this before. It's a fascinating project. I'm a firm believer of PO but yet I still believe this project has a GOOD chance of happening.

I don't know why greenies have such a fetish for "localization".

Everytime mankind discovers a new mode of transportation everything gets a little bit more "consolidated"
horseback riding ---> canals ---> railroads ---> cars ---> airplanes ---> CONTAINERIZATION

This project is a direct result of humanity's most recent transportation innovation, containerization.

Maybe the ultimate fate of humanity is to get pushed pack to the stone age while the genetically engineered apes take over the planet, but for the near future (this century) the trend is towards consolidation.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'E')verytime mankind discovers a new mode of transportation everything gets a little bit more "consolidated"
horseback riding ---> canals ---> railroads ---> cars ---> airplanes ---> CONTAINERIZATION

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '.')..
Everything is containerized except for where people live...

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('emersonbiggins', '.')..
Everything is containerized except for where people live...

[Zardoz]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Leanan', 'Y')ou realize that article is written by Jerome "No dinosaur ever walked on the bottom of the ocean, therefore oil is abiotic" Corsi, don't you?

[EarthGamePlayer]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')e's the Michelangelo of bullshit artistry:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '"')Mr. Corsi is the author of several books, including "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry" (along with John O'Neill), "Black Gold Stranglehold: The Myth of Scarcity and the Politics of Oil" (along with Craig R. Smith), and "Atomic Iran: How the Terrorist Regime Bought the Bomb and American Politicians." He is a frequent guest on the G. Gordon Liddy radio show. He will soon co-author a new book with Jim Gilchrist on the Minuteman Project."

[pea-jay]

If you look closely at this map

you will see that it predominately traverses solidly red states (Illinois and Michigan excepted). And only the reddest among them is dumb enough to pursue it.

[pea-jay]

In another way, this plan resembles a grander and less thought out version of Schwartzeneggers boneheaded plan to build more CA freeways, in the name of meeting anticipated car growth. The governator has seen his plan whittled down somewhat, with fewer highways and more transit/rail.

This plan makes no sense on a number of fronts. Not only is there a well discussed energy aspect, but then we have the trucker issue as well. If anyone looks around now, you will find a relative shortage of truckers. Increasing the number of trucks only increases the number of drivers since most trucks usually carry one or two containers. On a few occasions you will see 3. what are we going to see on these corridors, ten container truck trains? A train needs few employees and extra cars can be added with no addl crew memmbers req. Now astute folks will guess, ah yes...Mexican truck drivers will be recruited. Then there is the whole land aquisiton and construction business. According to the web site, an undetermined amount of financing will originate from what will essentially be user fees. No studies on traffic levels needed to pay for it. No consideration whether truckers would use it if fees were to high. Then the debt financing issue. The original interstate system was built when US oil production was at its zenith and the economy seemingly limitless. This is most certainly not the case now.

I am not even going to get into the flawed statistics used to justify the boondoggle in the first place.

A cursory examination of the plan indicates "the numbers just dont pencil out".

Even if globalization were able to continue through some miraculous oil find, a more prudent and efficient way to move containers would be to import them through super massive ports, place them on long rail cars to inland rail/truck terminals which at that point would get delivered via trucking. No transcontinental freeway required, just a few rail routes with double or quadruple tracking and some imagination.

Certainly not sexy and would put far fewer dollars into truck manufacturers, construction interests, developers and anyone else likely to make a buck off this idea. Its obvious, no one with any brains is working on this project or allowed to propose an alternative solution.

[SHiFTY]

It's a property development scam.

Use dodgy laws to confiscate vast corridors of farmland under 'eminent domain', then sell it to the developers who convert the land next to the road- build new suburban, commercial and industrial areas, and sell the result for billions.

The only ones who lose are the farmers who are forced by the state to sell vast amounts of their land at a pittance, and society in general, who will probably end up paying for the construction.

Pretty disgusting.

[emersonbiggins]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pea-jay', 'N')o consideration whether truckers would use it if fees were to high.

[lotrfan55345]

Ehh, this passes through Minneapolis

[pea-jay]

The more I think about this scheme, the more I am inclined to think the word "stupidity" is an understatement.

I can't begin to imagine what the person or people who dreamed this up were or werent thinking. I am a planner by profession and I know planners and engineers come up some pretty grandious ideas. Many of these originate out of the almost ingrained trait to BLINDLY forecast future numbers by examining past trends without ever considering alternatives. Its insidous and clouds the thinking of otherwise very bright individuals.

And after an idea gets formented, it often gathers a life of its own as the originator(s} frequently treat any criticism as a personal attack and more often than not are unable to admit that an idea may have been wrong and perhaps should be dropped. Pride too often stands in the way.

I bet I could stand in front of those planners and explain why the idea is wrong and do it at a professional level and not even get the slightest agreement that their grand plan has little or no use for the future.

[samovar]

Just what North America needs - A Superhighway straight through the middle of nowhere. No offense to those of you who live in fly-over country - I mean the Great Plains.

Seriously though, if oil supplies were infinite and pollution free, sending a continental highway through the plains via Texas, makes sense. But even in that cornucopian scenario, a train would still be more efficient. Given reality, its more of a Highway to Hell.

[savethehumans]

See pea-jay's pretty NAFTA Superhighway map, above?

See Texas? See, right above Dallas & Ft. Worth, the city of DENTON?

That's me!

One of the few HAPPY results of the coming collapse of civilization is that this Superhighway will NEVER be built!

I am glad. Denton is a nice small city, a university town that has a core community that might just rise again when the cow patties hit the fan.

But it's still a shock to see MY city on THAT map!

[pea-jay]

It seems to me that we already have a system that does part of what the NAFTA corridor espouses doing.

Lets examine

the NAFTA corridor


does a lot of what this network (Canadian National railroad) also can do


when combined and properly linked with this rail service


and collectively improved to handle large freight movements could transport vastly greater amounts of freight when compared to the insane plan floated above, even if the trains run purely off of diesel.

If the entire route were double tracked and electrified, no liquid fuel whatsoever would be required to doe the same the dreamed up by the meglomaniacs behind this piece of work.

[azreal60]

I wonder if anyone bothered to point out that fact to congress before they authored the bills nessesary to bring about the idea for that.. idea.

[Novus]

I get a sudden urge to play AC/DC's Highway To Hell over and over again.

[cube]

My gut feeling tells me this project will be built.

yeah I know a lot of people here don't like the idea but lets be honest with ourselves and admit that globalization is one of the most powerful forces today. Unless something else with more power comes by I see the trend continuing.

I guess this is the part where everybody says PO will be that "more powerful force" that will knock the wind out of globalization. Maybe so. But who knows when that's going to happen? Probably sometime after this project gets completed. I still see this project as being "viable" even if oil hits $200 a barrel.