One of June’s most memorable photos is the sheer one. devastation The cause was a tanker truck fire on Interstate 95 (I-95) in Philadelphia. The fire destroyed the northbound side of a bridge on Interstate 95 near Philadelphia, rendering the southbound side incomplete and unsuitable for handling traffic. Officials are scrambling to estimate costs and schedules for repairs, while tourists are scrambling to find alternatives for major stretches of the country’s longest North-South highway.
While the fire exposed the weakness of Interstate 95’s infrastructure, it also exposed a longstanding and shameful failure of public policy in the United States. Despite infrastructure being a frequent topic of conversation in the Capitol, it is often used as a Trojan horse to drive other priorities. This neglect has resulted in a significant lack of structural integrity in highways, bridges and tunnels across the United States.
In late 2021, lawmakers in Washington passed the much-vaunted “infrastructure bill.” The bill’s total investment exceeded $1 trillion.However, traditional infrastructure just received $127 billion, just over 10% of the bill’s total funding.Despite President Biden claim Passage of the bill meant “America is on the move again” and was in response to “countless speeches, promises and white papers from experts” about the need to improve the country’s roads, bridges and other infrastructure. said.
The bill includes $15 billion in electric vehicle subsidies. This was on top of the billions of dollars in tax credits and subsidies the electric vehicle (EV) industry already receives from governments. EVs are not well penetrated in the market and are not being bought at the expected rate.It will become more popular in the future threaten Sustainability of power grids. Despite these factors, billions of people went to EVs instead of highways.
The bill also includes $85 billion to increase government involvement in areas better left to the private sector. In fact, $20 billion of that total was used primarily by the Department of Energy to invest in energy start-ups at its own discretion. The agency had already failed in similar ventures in the past.
Another $65 billion was spent building high-speed internet, allowing government involvement in traditional private companies. Last week, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released the following document to demonstrate the stupidity of this. 3 mapsVerizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile all provide comprehensive nationwide coverage with high-speed internet.
Such nepotism and increased government power could have saved taxpayers billions of dollars or doubled investment in traditional infrastructure. That would have prevented a tragedy like the recent one on Interstate 95. But they instead chose to give political projects and partisan agendas.
Federal policy has also exacerbated traffic congestion on the Northeast Corridor of Interstate 95, making alternative routes unavailable to drivers. One of America’s most egregious laws, the Jones Act limits domestic water trade to vessels built, registered and owned in the United States. This leaves few options for travel between American ports.
The Kato Institute in February, the study, which analyzes the impact of the Jones Act on traffic in the Northeast. They found that the region has 6 of the top 10 most congested roads in America and 2 of the 5 most congested cities in the world. A big reason for that is that there are huge numbers of truck drivers hauling packages on these northeastern highways and, as any driver knows, they drive more slowly than the average highway traveler. This is because
Shipping between American ports will become more efficient as ships will be able to carry more cargo in a single voyage. It will also be more environmentally friendly given the resulting efficiency will reduce emissions. But protectionists and shipping unions have prevented the law from being taken off the books for more than 100 years. You now have a clearer picture of your costs. This strained highways and left many areas without alternatives in the event of a disaster.
The tanker truck fire was certainly a freak accident. But there were many ways policymakers could mitigate the impact of such incidents. They could have actually made the Infrastructure Bill specific to conventional infrastructure, empowering American industry to develop viable contingencies. However, special interests prevent both realizations. It will certainly take months to repair this section of Interstate 95, but policy makers should reflect on these mistakes and act quickly to mitigate them.
Dan Savicus is the policy director for the Taxpayer Protection Alliance.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of The Daily Caller.
