John Hennessy III,
P.E.
As we sit and watch our infrastructure crumble, what can we do? We all depend on the roads, the bridges, the canals, the rails. But we’re not in the same position as Congress. We don’t play the role of financing the renovation. They pass the bills, then we do the work. But the question still remains. What can the individual do in the face of a system that struggles with enabling the individual to do anything?
View this complete post...Richard Kauffmann and Andrew Shapiro discuss the very real prospect of “Zombie Utilities” on Fortune Brainstorm.
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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE FOR POLICY RESEARCH
While states own a large portion of highly traveled roads, such as interstate highways, local governments are responsible for the majority of roadway mileage. Counties and municipalities, including minor civil divisions such as townships, are responsible for 3.1 million miles of roads and streets. Only 430,000 miles (14 percent) of these are part of the federal aid system. The remaining 2.7 million (86 percent) are nonfederal aid. By contrast, 72 percent of the 780,000 miles of state-owned roads are in the federal aid system (Figure 1).
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Changes in climate create diverse challenges across the U.S. energy system. Some energy infrastructure assets have already suffered damage or disruption in services from a variety of climate-related impacts, such as higher temperatures, rising sea levels, and more severe weather events. In the absence of concerted action to improve resilience, energy system vulnerabilities pose a threat to America’s national security, energy security, economic wellbeing, and quality of life.
After launching a project assessing peak demand and demand response (DR) standards at the state level, Advanced Energy Economy (AEE) discovered that no currently existing study examined existing DR programs or made recommendations on best practices for structuring a DR/peak demand initiative. AEE engaged Navigant to perform quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to gain an understanding of peak demand reduction standards, their potential benefits, and how such standards should be designed.
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AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR AN ENERGY-EFFICIENT ECONOMY
In this ninth edition of our State Energy Efficiency Scorecard, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE) ranks states on their policy and program efforts and recommends ways that states can improve their energy efficiency performance in various policy areas. The State Scorecard provides an annual benchmark of the progress of state energy efficiency policies and programs. It encourages states to continue strengthening their efficiency commitments in order to promote economic growth, secure environmental benefits, and increase their communities’ resilience in the face of the uncertain cost and supply of the energy resources on which they depend.
AMERICA’S WATERSHED INITIATIVE
The Mississippi River Watershed has diminished as a healthy and sustaining water resource over the last several decades. To raise the grade, we need integrated management to reflect the relationships between the different goals and basins, and increased participation by partners and stakeholders working together on specific actions to improve the watershed.
Infrastructure is not just about connections between technological aspects of civilization, it is also about the lack of connections. For every link between buildings and cities via power lines, fiber optics, and water pipe, there is another fence, a wall, or a vault buried underneath the earth. Environmental art seeks to engage connections between people and landscapes, but it does not have a monopoly on these aesthetic relationships. And in fact, entities such as large public infrastructure authorities often have way more power to engage these connections, or to shut them off.
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Philip K. Howard is a well-known leader of government and legal reform in America. In 2002, he formed Common Good, a nonpartisan national coalition dedicated to restoring common sense to America.
“…we’re at one of those points where lots of things have to change in our society, and one of them happens to be the legal infrastructure. You can’t have a democracy where the people you elect actually don’t have the authority that goes along with their responsibility…it’s kind of a form of legal mental illness. It’s bad for everybody. Bad for the environment, bad for costs, bad for everybody.”
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THE LEAGUE OF AMERICAN BICYCLISTS
Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau studies Americans’ commuting habits, including how many people commute by bike. While commuting is only part of the bicycling story, the American Community Survey provides valuable insight into changing commuting patterns and transportation choices.
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