In the USA, Trump said that he would invest heavily in infrastructure due to the current infrastructure aging (you can see it with Oroville dam for example) and being unable to handle modern-day demands. I feel like his idea of an infrastructure bill is to revamp current highways, rebuild some airports and maybe give a little investment into rail. The only problem though is that a lot of this isn't really environmentally friendly, it's also not using the latest and greatest technology. This is why I advocate a "green infrastructure bill" or a "Green New Deal" as dubbed by Jill Stein.
The idea behind it is simple, I believe. The first issue that you need to address is America's power sources. Trump said that he wants to bring back coal miner's jobs. The problem with this is that coal is firstly a bad polluter. If you take a dig into what causes China's smog, a lot of it can be attributed to coal being used as a power source for factories, etc. Another issue is that coal jobs are likely never coming back to America. They are too invested overseas, especially in countries like China (with little regulation, lots of deaths in mines and cheap labour) or Australia (close to China, quality coal). You can always say that these towns could be producing nuclear energy instead, and while it can be clean, the consequences of it going wrong can be more harmful than clean. You just have to take Chernobyl and Pripyat as an example, you have a city of a few thousand close to a nuclear power plant which has exploded. The affects of this is going to last until people die and for the land around it, hundreds of years for radiation to go down. Why not go change power sources to solar panel farms (for the desert as an example), windmills or even hydroelectric dams (or upgrading the current ones to give more mW? This would create a lot of jobs not just in terms of people running the plants, but in terms of manufacturing the pieces needed and researching/planning it out initially. This would be the first win for the economy.
The second is public transportation. America has shitty public transport. There's no getting around it. You have rails that operate at slow speeds, you have subways which are being destroyed, also slow too, you have buses which do help, but they contribute to extra traffic on the roads. Why not upgrade rail infrastructure between cities (and IN cities) to reflect the 21st century demand? This includes high speed rail, modern train stations, more computerised or automated infrastructure behind it to guarantee safety and make sure trains run on time. High speed rail is environmentally sustainable, you do not burn coal to get your train moving, you use electricity which allows for quicker acceleration, less limited resources like coal or diesel. This is just for intercity alone, what about revitalising the important smaller in terms of how many people use it, but longer railway tracks (length) which are now abandoned and/or in really bad quality? Countries that tend to have a good railway system, tend to be kicking ass in terms of economic growth, which is what you want if you care about your citizens. This would be another net win for America as you would revitalise the steel industry (if you make people use American steel for rails and chasis for trains), you would employ people to manufacture the tracks and the chasis, you would employ people to run the trains, etc. most importantly this would result in people less likely to go and drive which clogs up highways and is slow. The alternative I'm proposing is clean, speedy and a win for the traveler.
The third one is important too, highways. American roads and bridges are in a state of disrepair. They need to be immediately fixed up, but I don't mean simply repairing some potholes or adding some new concrete to bridges. I mean finding more economical routes that allow a speed to be traveled at safely and this means that there's less gas usage and less road fatigue -- all by building roads in new places. This is one of the major driving factors behind economic growth. Concrete industry can be revitalised, stop-go sign dudes who stand around doing nothing all day can be employed again, people who actually construct the roads can be employed. This is another way to grow the economy.
What are your thoughts on a "Green New Deal" or a "Green Infrastructure Bill" as opposed to just another infrastructure bill which doesn't take advantage of the latest modern technology and brainpower behind it?
