With historic levels of bipartisan support for investment in the country’s infrastructure, what it will take to improve America’s infrastructure grade in the years ahead? How can private sector innovation and public sector investment transform the American landscape?
These are a few of the questions panelists considered during a plenary session of the 2021 CSG National Conference on Thursday that was presented by the Future of Sustainability Policy Academy.
Anna Denecke, director of infrastructure initiatives for the American Society of Civil Engineers, noted that America’s infrastructure received a grade of C-minus in the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2021 Report Card.
It’s not just roads and bridges that require investment, either. Denecke said the country needs to shore up built networks, as well. She pointed out the electricity relies on complex patchwork of generation facilities and distribution lines. The majority of the grid is aging, with some components more than 100 years old.
“We basically need to rewire America,” she said. “We now have solar in New Mexico, we have wind in Kansas and Iowa, and these resources need to get to the coast. It’s going to require quite a bit of build-out and modernizing of our energy grid.”
Amy Brink, vice president for state affairs at the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, described rapid change in the automobile industry.
“The industry is going through quite a transformation,” she said. “It’s the biggest we’ve seen in the last 100 years. Whether autonomous vehicles or EVs [electrical vehicles], there’s a lot happening.”
Brink said the industry plans to invest $330 billion in vehicle electrification by 2025, as well as offer 130 models for sale in the us market by 2026. In order to support this rapid change, residential and commercial infrastructure will have to grow to accommodate charging.
Dealers, too, have embraced the turn toward electric vehicles, said Andy Koblenz, executive vice president for legal and regulatory affairs at the National Automobile Dealers Association.
“Dealers are all in on electric vehicles,” Koblenz said. “They want those opportunities. They want the opportunity to sell that car to anyone ready willing and able to buy it.”
Koblenz said that dealers aren’t just excited about electric vehicles — he believes they will play an important role in educating consumers on charging, safety and operation.
“Dealers are the ones who are going to be holding the hands of consumers, explaining to them, overcoming some of the hesitancy that exists in their mind right now,” he said.
Andrew McLean, a transportation policy specialist with CDM Smith and former Maine state representative, said states are taking the lead in innovating transportation infrastructure, from carbon reduction and sustainable land use policies to finding alternative to the gas tax.
“The future is not the gas tax,” he said. “It’s a road usage charge or some other charge that will provide sustainable funding for the future.”
He also called on leaders to work together on bipartisan infrastructure solutions.
“We can’t keep having conversations about our C- report card every 10 years,” he said. “Electrification is the key to the future, and the IIAJ provides significant investment. Transportation is not a sexy topic, but it’s so fundamental and so core to what we do as Americans. […] It is our obligation to find a solution. There are no Democratic roads or Republican bridges.”