US Infrastructure Plan

The Whitehouse has a statement on the American’s Jobs Plan (aka the multi-trillion dollar infrastructure bill.)

* In total, the plan will invest about $2 trillion this decade.
* $621 billion in transportation infrastructure and resilience.
* invest $80 billion to address Amtrak’s repair backlog
* a targeted investment tax credit that incentivizes the buildout of at least 20 gigawatts of high-voltage capacity power lines
* Invest $25 billion in our airports, including funding for the Airport Improvement Program, upgrades to FAA assets that ensure safe and efficient air travel,
* $174 billion investment to win the EV market. His plan will enable automakers to spur domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retool factories to compete globally, and support American workers to make batteries and EVs. It will give consumers point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EV. (working to eliminate 200,000 vehicle cap)
* establish grant and incentive programs for state and local governments and the private sector to build a national network of 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, while promoting strong labor, training, and installation standards. Replace 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrify at least 20 percent of our yellow school bus fleet through a new Clean Buses for Kids Program at the Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the Department of Energy.
* ten-year extension and phase-down of an expanded direct-pay investment tax credit and production tax credit for clean energy generation and storage. (Boosting the value of the credit to 30% from 26% today, said Abigail Ross Hopper, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association. )
* bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American, including the more than 35 percent of rural Americans
* $180 billion investment in R&D
* invest $40 billion in upgrading research infrastructure in laboratories across the country, including brick-and-mortar facilities and computing capabilities and networks
* $111 billion for drinking water infrastructure. (invest $45 billion in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and in Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN) grants. )
* modernize 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main-streets. It will fix the ten most economically significant bridges in the country in need of reconstruction. It also will repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges, providing critical linkages to communities.
* Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies. For decades, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities.
* Invests $100 billion to upgrade and build new public schools, through $50 billion in direct grants and an additional $50 billion leveraged through bonds.
* invest $12 billion in community colleges
* $46 billion investment in federal buying power for clean energy manufacturing (advanced nuclear, clean cars, batteries, electric vehicles, charging ports, and electric heat pumps for residential heating and commercial buildings.)
* invest $20 billion in regional innovation hubs and a Community Revitalization Fund
* invest more than $52 billion in domestic manufacturers. (extend 48C tax credit)
* invest $31 billion in programs that give small businesses access to credit, venture capital, and R&D dollars

SOURCES- White House
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com

163 thoughts on “US Infrastructure Plan”

  1. This seems to focus on deck chairs unfortunately. I say FOCUS on Generation IV nuclear, like LFTR's to the tune of about $50 billion. Andrew Yang had it right. Right now we are trend to +4 degrees C, and the feedback loops are just beginning to kick in. Things will only get more and MORE exciting and not in a good way.

  2. That'd be fun – but in all honesty there's only so much you can do with an interior width of about 9.5 ft max. Not much room for the waterslide, or a casino!

  3. Here is what I want to see. Bernie wants to tax billionaires, right? The GOP should counter with a plan to leave Elon Musk alone…but to hit Zuckerberg, Buffet, Styen and the woke big tech tycoons who deplatformed conservatives with a 99.9% tax that goes to buying Teslas and giving them to poor minorities as reparations. In exchange for a dox-free Internet bill of rights, the GOP allows net neutrality. Bernie gets his tax…the poor get cars…and Musk gets even richer. Everybody wins!

  4. No Matt, replace the equal sign with an arrow. Living denser makes people socialist. Now, is that true or not? That's a different question..

  5. It's not just that it will be completely loop sided, it's a bad idea at its core. The change from ICE to BEV will come about due to the fact that BEVs are cheaper and better in every respect. You cannot stop it, and more importantly, can only affect the transition in the positive direction marginally.

    So, you will increase taxes in order to push the EV transition by – at most – a couple of months, and killing some very successful (other) businesses in the process. And that is bad usage of tax money and detrimental to the society.

  6. You are right, this is one of the big problems with liberals. They are extremely intolerant and cannot make a "case", only stack insults upon insults.

  7. If they are not paying their taxes, and the IRS is not enforcing it and jailing people, then it is broken.
    I always laugh at the Laffer Curve. What exactly is the point where the wealthy will happily pay their taxes? What percentage? I don't believe there is one. If you put their tax rate at 0%, they'll try to get a positive return from the government kinda like Amazon. Enforcement is the only thing that works, and we've stripped so much money from the IRS they cannot enforce anything more complicated than electronic tax returns from the non wealthy.
    Regardless, instead of more taxes we should be going after tax dodgers instead since they owe more than enough to pay for this all by itself. We could even make a market of it to bypass the IRS not being able to pay investigators. Licensed CPA's could be authorized to go after them for a percentage of what they catch. You would see a lot of tax dodgers in prison, that is for sure.

  8. I know that Evergreen college in my own state the students were more concerned with firing a white professor for not shutting down his testing day than they were their education. I am not anti-education nor am I anti-science, I'm anti propaganda. The local college here advertised an instructor position as wanting a "diverse" applicant (translation non-white). Don't kid yourself, all avenues of education are getting the wokeness cool-aid soon.

  9. yes. they're the only productive people in society. All else are sheep and moochers and stumbling-about workers. without them we would be 1940s savages tinkering with steam, early electricty, and whatever we can build in our garage – all praise the corporate overlords who grant us direction, purpose, and work so that we don't shamble around looking for food and mates during our Mon to Sat 8 – 6 shifts. Amen

  10. Unfortunately, much of Obama's stimulus bill ended up with republican insisted upon tax cuts to small businesses.

  11. Savings in time may be huge in the NE corridor – elsewhere? Not so much. A lot of stations have one train a day each way. (Like Atlanta.) And the last time we took it (roughly 10 years back, just for fun) the Dining Car was closed, the bar was barely open, and the food that was available in the bar car was badly overpriced for what you got.

    YMMV – but while rail may work well in Europe where everything's smashed together, and in the NE Corridor where the population density's stupid high, outside those areas it's not a great way to travel and a lot more expensive than flying.

  12. lifeline to some small towns though… surprised they don't do more trains, smaller, more often…. traffic control??

  13. amtrak's key is: Minimum Security. the savings in time is huge — and hush, hush – almost everyone brings their gun on the train…
    just get it faster and a bit more consumer-focussed – better bar/ better food (without pre-tension)

  14. Ahh -the part-mythological 'long-tail' production/demand phenomena. With industries so set in their ways and costs/ profits/ prices known and predictable prior-to-the Incident – this would seem a grand undertaking with huge price increases and massive supply disruptions — but, hey pro-industrialization, cottage-type businesses proliferating, and such… late 2021 is a different world.

  15. "When losers have not much else to say, with the back against the wall they insult the opponent."

  16. I think Trump lacks even basic management skills. He couldn't even pull off a successful insurrection or strong arm Pence into denying the certified votes.

  17. In all honesty I hope you are correct. I could give you a litany of facts contrary but as you mention facts don't matter here. I too hope we will be forever buoyed up by a strong US dollar and people in other countries willing to work much harder for much less, so that my trips to Target are affordable and abundant. Let's agree to revisit in 5 years and see if we have emerged into a post scarcity world or if crushing national debt has begun to take deep and lasting cuts to standards of living. Here's to hoping for the Utopian version were facts such as interest rates, energy demand, and puritan work ethic seem like silly relics.

  18. The Shimizu plan is for the circumlunar superconductor. Criswell is superior for several reasons, esp the fact that it can start working w/o such a superconductor, as none is needed. Only short distances over the limb are needed. Check it out!

  19. even an orange skinned nacassistic lunatic can have an occasional good idea that he probably stole from someone else.

  20. Ah. Sweet innocent babe. No such thing as Free Market. No such thing as Healthy Competition. Cronyism is rampant. Collusion is typical and expected. It is not pre-Wall USSR-type corruption -or streets of southeast asia, of course, because, well the middle management and most workers just want to get paid — but corporate culture is Who you know and What they can do for you. The GCAs and IRA provide a certain level of consistent playing field, but if you have been part of a small or smallish-middle business you can pretty much do anything (and write off anything). It is the intense industrial/ commercial feudalism that keeps everything in kind of a detente 'check' – a bizarre, self-reinforcing, self-regulating chaos that continues to perpetuate knowledge, productivity, and product — with some people, somehow continuing to pay taxes, because well, other people are. Exceptionalism at its best. Productivity through consensual contempt of your rivals, customers, and government. Mexican stand-off done with 350M people.

  21. Once the boring company hits it's stride there will be an honest to god infrastructure improvement that will generate a huge amount of wealth by enabling cheaper transportation. It will also make sense for anywhere with a dense enough population, or between such places.
    The same thing the interstates did for long distance trucking, the same thing jet aircraft did for long distance transportation. I see it playing out like this. Some more projects in Las Vegas, likely some in Miami-Dade county area.
    After several more projects built, and several years to develop new boring machines based on what is learned regional, and then nation wide rollout begins.

    First stage: Tunnels about the same ID as the Las Vegas tunnels. Serves passenger, delivery, and COMEX carrier vehicles. Tunnels become ubiquitous, and vehicular traffic on surface streets, and highways is noticeably less. Over time highways lose lanes, bridges get derated over time, garbage trucks, and local ICE automotive travel continues for a long time. Original magnetic acceleration, and deceleration along with fans moving tunnel gas turn out to work pretty well.

    Second stage: First stage tunnels are dedicated to delivery, and long container freight. New tunnels are lower air pressure, possibly larger diameter, and may have metal floor, and vertical features made of conductors for maglev. Possibly some new levitation, and locomotion scheme.
    Secondary small diameter tunnels lead to hubs.

  22. Agreed. A return to industrialization is not a return to 70s union lethargy. Mining is high tech. Assembly lines are high tech. Textiles can be high tech. automation and AI can be in everything, but only if we have the PhDs in the same country as the 'production'. All traditionally blue-collar jobs can bisect into either artisan, for those inclined, or automated-AI-controlled to achieve competitive costs and variety. Be part of the New Blue.

  23. Nope. The US needs to make everything and be everything. Globalization is in decline. Assigning industries, sectors, or supply centres to various traditionally cheap and available labor/ resource abundance/ industrially-focused centres is so 2000s. Self-reliance and self-contained supply lines are the Trump legacy – it is unstoppable with Network effects to All Industries and All Classes.

  24. bad customer service. nonsense amenities. utterly disinterested Brand. It is the Taxi of the pre-Uber world – a tired, sad slum of out-dated rolling infrastructure. there are millions of road-trip people that would jump at a chance of a comfortable and interesting corss-country experience – witness river cruises. Get Carnival Cruises, etc., to 'Jazz' up the train and then you've got something.

  25. To these guys shovel ready means ready to shovel money to crooked democrat state, and municipal government cronies.

  26. Mining the moon for PV raw materials is a great idea. I think putting that PV in an Earth orbit, or possibly LaGrange points is the way to power earth.
    Lunar PV for power on the moon. A circum lunar equatorial belt of PV and superconducting cables would do the trick.

  27. agreed. urban areas will require specialized infrastructure — if only to coordinate the vehicles and the site.

  28. Two things:

    1). Taxes are the price we pay for civilization
    2). These companies are welcome to attempt to reproduce their success in Syria or Somalia or some other place without order and infrastructure.

    As a taxpayer, you’re welcome for my taxes creating an optimal setting for your success.

  29. Yeah, you can buy the cheaper chinese stuff right now, but seeing as how this is a US infrastructure policy, that also includes supporting infrastructure as well as buying "Made in America" where applicable. Which means restarting domestic rare earth metal refining capacity to meet domestic needs so that the supporting infrastructure actually exists and is usable. Refinery capacity isn't something you can turn off and on, it takes time to spin up and needs sustainment. For potentially defense sensitive or certain strategic materials there are mechanisms to supply subsidies to manufacturers to keep the manufacturing lines open, but in recent years a lot of waivers have been granted so some materials no longer have a domestic source at all. Which is final when you have a global economy and everybody is buddy-buddy to the point that it's economic suicide to initiate a trade war and/or actual war.

  30. They're already available at a cheaper price, the stuff in the ground isn't going anywhere. This issue rightfully belongs at the bottom of the list of problems, let others pick their low hanging fruit.

  31. We should also stop paying all those farmers to grow crops nobody will buy, and stop paying all those oil companies that can already profitably drill, right?

  32. You'll notice that when people try to argue against government spending by bringing up Solyndra, they can never come up with a second company to make their point.

  33. Inflation is merely the result of increased aggregate supply and demand. Assigning it morality makes no sense, just like assigning morality to anything in capitalism makes no sense. It's just a system for distributing scarce goods and services.

  34. This is ridiculous. Government services make an economy possible, it makes the very possibility of private ownership possible. Without a monopoly on legitimate violence you'd just have balkanization and regional governments forming anyway. I swear, libertarians really are a special breed of ideological ignorance.

  35. Yes, that's another advantage. Great stuff. Also available as mesh, twine, and a chopped additive. I'm thinking of building an in ground concrete hot tub next year, and if I do, I'll use it, because it won't rust.

  36. Well, all mainstream fusion research is a toilet down which to flush money, so I'm sure it will be fully funded. That money should be used to hire Kirk Sorensen to make LFTR a reality. It would be plenty of money for a prototype, and several functioning production model reactors.
    The privately funded fusion projects that are worth funding will be ignored. The academics hate them, like ULA hates SpaceX.

  37. We can make Amtrak work! All we need is to… increase ridership. But it's faster and cheaper to go by plane. If you're in a hurry, or actually want to get there in a reasonable time frame, you'll be going by air.

    If you want to take 3-4 days to go coast to coast, for the equivalent cost of flying first class, then… woohoo! you'll be in luck! If… the train goes where you want.

    And SpaceX is about to provide affordable broadband nationwide. Gee… looks like Ol' Joe's trying hard to reinvent the wheel.

  38. With the Helix product you can skip that step. The Helix micro rebar is simply poured with the concrete, so no need to worry about corners or other issues and cost with laying the rebar. This is one of the things I like about it and why I mentioned it. When you are talking miles of concrete, huge projects and mega tons of concrete the cost savings are substantial.

  39. It also has the advantage of contracting and expanding at the same rate as the concrete due to temperature variations. This keeps it from losing cohesion with the concrete. Nice product basalt rebar, not sure what the cost differential would be though. I am planning on using it in my new slab on grade foundation.
    Everyone seems to want to use cheap rusting rebar in infrastructure projects though, even though it destroys the concrete structure at a much expanded timeframe. That is a huge advantage of the much vaunted long lasting Roman concrete, no steel rebar to destroy it.

  40. $12 billion for community colleges. Yup we need more communists and white hating critical race theorists out there. Are they going to shut any wars down to pay for any of this? Didn't think so.

  41. Biden is stealing Trump's best ideas: today infrastructure, tomorrow a new beautiful health plan. Of course, Trump's hands were tied the first two years by a Republican house and senate.

  42. You can provide all the links and truths and facts and previously-solid economics theory (and whatever alarmism) you want, but in 50 years, you can depend on it that there will have been no huge economics upheaval, no drastic drop in standard of living outside of typical 1st world expectations, and no deep and seemingly unending depression. The 1st World is fine and will continue to be 'relatively' fine. This pandemic will be the worse thing to hit the world until the next half of this century. The economic policies that will be enacted going forward will loosely align with the somewhat hedonistic and distinct political-flavouring of each decade, ad nauseum. I don't even see the value in trumpeting such drama and scaremongering. Automation and globalization and money policy can be manipulated and nudged perpetually. Why care beyond your own bubble of influence in such a 'hazard-proof economy'?

  43. The rectennae are both the main investment and the only required part, and they are literally spread out and thus hard to destroy. Any Earth or Space source can feed the rectennae, and such sources will be abundant as they can switch to the need, from L5 or other factory sites. 'great red Off button' is called EM pulse and already exists, at least for Earth. Space too distant for that to work so well. I favor the "outside of national boundaries", that is, Space, aspect of this, in fact, that is the main reason for my interest, opening Space for everything. No way that is not better protection from Earth evil. Come up with something better either for Space or power, I'm good.

  44. I honestly can't tell if your being ironic or not. I am certain the Weimar Republic consider themselves too big to fail as well. I agree that might makes right, but our might is failing. Trying to print over the issues doesn't help the fundamental economy. Here are the fundamentals; and they all point one way.Real GDP and Labor force is down.
    http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/gross-domestic-product-charts
    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART

    The biggest fundamental is birth rate. Its hard to grow your way out of a hole when you have below replacement rate births. Immigration helps but only to a point. I wonder why the federal reserve tracks this?

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/SPDYNTFRTINUSA

  45. The realization that gov is inherently a monopoly is rare, congrats! Gov has defined any big enuf business as monopoly, incorrectly, and labelled them as evil for being monopoly. I kid you not. Don't assume the "power vacuum" where all possible power must be *held* by some entity. Many assume we will be on a planet without question. Current science is going the other way on both assumptions, fortunately!

  46. * Invests $100 billion to upgrade and build new public schools, 
    — Yes on education and more schools. To the future. 
    * invest $12 billion in community colleges
    — Yes on education and more schools. To the future. Have a well educated and empowered workforce.
    * $46 billion investment in federal buying power for clean energy manufacturing (advanced nuclear, clean cars, batteries, electric vehicles, charging ports, and electric heat pumps for residential heating and commercial buildings.)
    — Yes on advanced nuclear, et al.
    * invest $20 billion in regional innovation hubs and a Community Revitalization Fund
    — Inner cities still need a lot of help in wealth building. 
    * invest more than $52 billion in domestic manufacturers. (extend 48C tax credit)
    — this is what China does, right? make sure we have successes and continue to lead in manufacturing.
    * invest $31 billion in programs that give small businesses access to credit, venture capital, and R&D dollars
    —Small Business good.

  47. * ten-year extension tax credit for clean energy generation and storage. 
    — seems like these become profitable anyways, but incentive to get them going is good.
    * bring affordable, reliable, high-speed broadband to every American, including the more than 35 percent of rural Americans
    — um, I'd be ok with letting spacex and the market take care of this. 
    * $180 billion investment in R&D
    — yes. to the future!
    * invest $40 billion in upgrading research infrastructure in laboratories across the country, 
    — to the future!
    * $111 billion for drinking water infrastructure. (invest $45 billion in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and in Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act (WIIN) grants. )
    — clean water is pretty important. 
    * modernize 20,000 miles of highways, roads, and main-streets. It will fix the ten most economically significant bridges in the country in need of reconstruction. It also will repair the worst 10,000 smaller bridges, providing critical linkages to communities.
    — make sure what we have works.
    * Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies. For decades, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities.
    — permanent wealth seems to come best from owning real estate. If this allows more to own, sounds good.

  48. We had 2 near failures, one very near, in 10 years in Texas. By solving the grids' irregularity, power beaming and H are thus cheaper, even before Space Solar is added to the power beaming. H replaces battery solution, and H pipes and/or power beaming move the energy. H is unique in solving both storage and transpo. Power beaming unique in distance and redirection in a flash. The cheap power promised by Criswell LSP for example fully takes advantage of your recommendation to take cost related to reliability into consideration. It is the current grid that makes renewables irregular, the current grid's insufficiency to move energy. And, the basic idea of relying on a single big 60 Hz circuit instead of smaller pieces is asking for trouble.

  49. * $621 billion in transportation infrastructure and resilience.
    —good, make sure what we have works.
    * invest $80 billion to address Amtrak’s repair backlog
    —see above. Good. Tho I really would like Denver to Chicago or SF on the ground in 3 hours or less.
    * a targeted investment tax credit that incentivizes the buildout of at least 20 gigawatts of high-voltage capacity power lines
    —yes, to adapt to new energy we need this. move it forwards fast.
    * Invest $25 billion in our airports, including funding for the Airport Improvement Program, upgrades to FAA assets that ensure safe and efficient air travel,
    —make sure what we have works well. 
    * $174 billion investment to win the EV market. His plan will enable automakers to spur domestic supply chains from raw materials to parts, retool factories to compete globally, and support American workers to make batteries and EVs. It will give consumers point of sale rebates and tax incentives to buy American-made EV. (working to eliminate 200,000 vehicle cap)
    good jobs for us. inspire pride in competition in industry.
    * 500,000 EV chargers by 2030, while promoting strong labor, training, and installation standards. 
    — i hope thats right to support folks who don't have private parking so the transition to EV goes well.
    * Replace 50,000 diesel transit vehicles and electrify at least 20 percent of our yellow school bus fleet
    — these are on the road every day most of the day. Awesome to replace with electric.

  50. Nice to see the Government will dump a trillion in the USA and not some foreign war. The 20 gigawatt of new power lines caused me to research it further but not much information. Questions I had is will it include DCHV lines or just HVAC lines. The articles did mention this will encourage some new transmission projects. Meaning to me more generation out in the country with massive lines into the metro areas. This will stick the rural areas with breathing the city used pollution and we will be lectured for all our pollution. All the trees cut down will also increase co2 build up. I am afraid the new carbon taxes will be used to generate slush funds. Since they have been suggested we have had an inconvenience development. There are all kinds of usage schemes for combining CO2 with hydrogen to produce clean fuels. Unfortunately none are economical to go it alone. I for one would say. Tough. Eliminate the CO2 and let the user pay.

  51. Yes, they are also going to start a international restaurant chain together: Nothing Burger. They'll need it for the tourists at the China-Russia moon base.

  52. Nah. that'd be old-boy, late 1900s Economic Thinking.
    I point you to NPR's, Planet Money, Episode "Bond Voyage" of jan. 2021 and the endless possiblity of indebtedness without worry, actual Value, and such. As of Summer 2020 – Fiscal deficit has no meaning – to believe otherwise is a fantasy. Just close your eyes and keep producing

  53. "But government is less blatantly evil."

    Rampant misallocation of trillions of dollars and creation of inflation is evil, just less obviously so than somebody attacking you. Inflation is a tax that you can't escape. It is included in rent and home ownership. It is included in every meal you eat.

    Handing hundreds of billions of dollars to poorly managed states is evil in that it postpones necessary restructuring because restructuring is painful and not politically expedient to favored constituencies.

  54. The difference is that private companies usually need to do something productive or they will die. In contrast Federal government agencies will never die even as they are increasingly less productive. For example the US Postal Service is perpetually running a loss and it doesn't care because it knows it is immortal due to its nature of being a governmental agency.

    In the private sector if you don't produce then you slowly die and eventually you are gone and nobody remembers you. Unless of course the private company can attach itself to the government and stay on life support. For example ULA's relationship with NASA.

  55. I don't think anyone is saying that solar power-beaming is not great — just that there is many more ways of achieving great without creating an entire new industry that falls outside of national boundaries. Power beaming from orbit – you might as well just give the russkies and Shaw and Xi Jinping a 'great red Off button' to our grid with how secure it would be against satelite-destroying space armadas.

  56. "Economics isn't Physics"

    Value is conserved just as energy is conserved. That's why you can't print your way to cheaper housing.

    Put another way printing money and experiencing inflation is just a distant corollary to the law of conservation of energy.

  57. That's the end state of every monopoly. But clearly once we aggregate all power at the Federal level of monopoly then things will be different.

  58. The grid is fine barring once a century snow storms or in CA's case wind.

    If you have to replace the grid to handle new and irregular power production then maybe that should be taken in to consideration when pricing the irregular power production.

  59. hmmm. large, slow, transparent-ish, and incompetent -or- medium, dynamic, opaque, and evil. Evil business people are more effective and productive. But government is less blatantly evil. I think the tax-payer suffers less under bailing out/ supporting evil businesmen than in propping up dysfunctional government oversight. Evil private sector SPACs it is.

  60. yes. But so what?
    The government, the bureaucracy, the legacy sink-holes of liabilites… Are Too Big To Fail. There is no Grand Reckoning. There is no Fundamental Accountability. If this economic model doesn't work, we'll build another… Economics isn't Physics. It is not subject to 'comeuppance' or 'just reward' or such. You can scream that the Sky is Falling all you want – so we'll re-define Sky. We'll re-define Falling. It is only the Internal Logic of the current system that matters – not whether it is right or wrong. There can't be a Wrong with the largest and most producitve economy in the World. Might makes Right. So go Build Stuff and contribute to GDP and stop asking questions.

  61. I think you are in something like 3% of Americans that understand this. People don't understand what money is. It is a simple question. If the government prints $2 trillion, $10 trillion, or $1000 trillion tomorrow; I have only one question for your down votes. How many goods and services exist today as compared to yesterday before the printing? It's a shell game where the government needs the people to have faith in the casino. Eventually they are going to run out of productive casino players.

  62. Technically it can be bent, but as it's essentially a form of fiberglass, heating it enough to bend degrades the resin. Ditto for welding. It's usually wrapped with basalt mesh and then epoxied, if you need a strong corner. Or you use prefab corners.

  63. Yes, as when a bunch of rebar is collected into a post top. Not at all uniform. So, have basalt helix micro fiber everywhere, add basalt for straight rebar extra load and post tension (which is pretty straight runs) and metal or preshaped basalt for bends, which would have to run next to the basalt for a while to join, a little extra. edit: does basalt bend when heated? Seems pretty easy if so. Even harder, can it be *welded* by heating?

  64. The latest numbers to escape from the CDC estimate that cloth masks are just over 1% effective in reducing transmission. That may be due entirely to the wearer not touching their nose.

  65. Think of it this way: Wind and solar on Earth, using H, plus eventually Space Solar, all connected thru power beaming, are the cure for the current grid systems' intermittency problem.

  66. You state greater efficiency, then take it away with the problem, the grid itself. Power beaming Earth to Earth sets up Space Solar, which uses the same rectennae as Earth to Earth. Micro grids around each rectenna can hook together for support, but they are not reliant upon the whole thing being *up* as with grid. And, there is a prob with 60 Hz over the whole continent, Einstein sez it is a meaningless/impossible timing concept.

    The efficiency argument is something I tried to make clear in the past, using the example of a lava flow being tapped for steam generation of elect. If most of the lava flow is *wasted*, does that mean it is a bad idea? Of course not! Same with H and power beaming. The fact that H can be put thru a pipe and batteries cannot is a huge factor, for example. The redirection of power beams in an instant likewise. Human effort and overall reliability are a part of *efficiency* in a broader context. How efficient was the Texas grid during the cold snap?

  67. If it's possible to do, that'd be great. I think it could be. Hydrogen is one of the most abundant (if not the most abundant) element in the universe. It's everywhere, if we go and get it from other places, not just Earth. If I understand correctly, there's even an abundance of hydrogen in the moon's regolith that we might be able to refine once we have operations there to do so. Or, we could even bring it back to Earth for refinement. That is a ways off, but perhaps a possibility.

  68. "Helix" is a shape. "HELIX" is a product, basically macro scale fiber reenforcement of concrete with bits of twisted wire. And, sure, you could probably pull off the same thing with basalt fiber.

    That gives the concrete better isotropic properties, (Discounting the tendency to align while pouring.) while the goal of rebar is better properties in specific directions when loading is known in advance. 

    The reason I like basalt rebar is that it's inherently rust resistant. OTOH, as I said, it's harder to fabricate into special shapes on site.

  69. Two wrongs don't make a right. All mentally healthy people are libertarian, they have a "live and let live attitude", direct experimental result/observation of Primal Therapy according to Janov. Not a lot of give in the logically correct *All* above!

  70. what they will do is dangle tons of money like candy in front of suburban and exurban and rural governments with of course a catch being they have to change or alter zoning laws to qualify for the printed money

  71. Sorry, power lines on land, if possible, are much more efficient than wireless transmission.

    The real problem, without radical improvements in generation reliability, (And this program pushes us in the opposite direction!) is that long distance interconnects just enable blackouts to attain larger scale. Potentially the entire power grid for a continent could go down.

  72. Pretty much. It's just that the Republicans are kind of half-hearted about it, the Democrats are all in. 

    But that just changes the rate at which we're driven towards socialism, not whether it's going on.

  73. Libertarians offer the only sane outlook. Space offers the only way to pay out of this until people wake up to the evils of left wing and right wing socialism.

  74. "The group says that existing gas infrastructure within the continent can be modified to ship the hydrogen at an affordable cost." Enormous, and already existing.

  75. "Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies. For decades, exclusionary zoning laws – like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing – have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities."

    Unbelievable. Encourage building of multistoried barracks without parking or infrastructure access like in Eastern Europe. Specifically in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Awesome plan.

  76. Subsidizing EVs is an integral part of the plan and it's stupid. What will happen is that Tesla will run out of their "quota" really quickly, and will then have to compete with all the second tier EV suppliers on an uneven playing field.

    Meaning, you will be penalized for being successful in your transition from ICE to EV…

  77. Everybody is cheering for the new "stuff" and forgets that this will kill american competitiveness.

    The "party" has to be payed by someone, and that someone is the american citizen. First off, Biden is proposing to increase the corporate tax to 28%, which will choke capital flow into new businesses. Bye, bye innovation..

    Second, they are proposing to increase tax on capital to 59 % (!!).. Meaning, when all greenies sell their Tesla stocks, they get to keep less than half of the profit (!!). Sometimes, I'm really happy not be living in the USA. 30% tax on capital gains is more than enough, thank you…

    And if the Biden administration – it's not Biden himself, he is not "present" – believes that it will be sufficient to tax only "rich" people to collect 2 trillion USD, well, that administration would be pretty foolish indeed…

  78. Team Biden will not create NWO by the New Green Deal.

    Biden is not even allowed to use the oval room, so he uses one studio in California and one in Atlanta.

    Trump received one hundred million votes and Biden 40.

    14 million ghost votes were added to Biden and 26 million were moved from Trump to Biden.

    Now, 2.1 million will first be fed through Jovan's machines, where those that are printed in faulty printers are machine-filled, those that are not sent by post are counted as postal votes are removed.

    So the rest is counted by hand.

    Finally, everyone is looked up and asked if they voted and those who voted several times or in the wrong state are removed and punished.

    The best is yet to come

  79. Government doesn't "invest". It doesn't have a penny to its name. All it does is steal from the earners and redirect money to its ideological supporters, while inserting itself as a middle-man into as many industries as possible so politicians and bureaucrats can skim more money off the citizens.

  80. Solyndra wasn't a failure. It was a perfectly successful money laundering scheme, like so many other 'stimulus' programs. It wasn't intended to succeed as a business, just in that regard.

  81. Basalt rebar strikes me as more cost-effective. It's only downside is the difficulty of bending it on site.

  82. Democrats have a great deal of trouble competing in areas with lower population densities, while they rule high population density areas as one party states.

    So it's hardly shocking that, when in power, they pursue policies aimed at forcing suburbs, (Where they are merely competative.) to urbanize, whether or not the people living there want to live in an urban area. (Spoiler: They don't, or they'd already be in one.)

  83. I still remember Obama pushing for "stimulus" for "shovel-ready" jobs.
    Then when he got the money he laughed and said there is no such thing as shovel-ready jobs.

  84. I am not sure why exotica would be necessary. Helix micro rebar is already tested by the US military (for bunkers to be explosion resistant) and ASTM, available in quantity, been used by the ton in New York in infrastructure projects, and is American made instead of imported from China.
    It also eliminates a step of laying rebar since the Helix is just poured with the concrete, so less labor cost. Since it is rust resistant it would make our bridges and concrete structures last 3+ times longer, so less cost for the infrastructure as well through maintenance and replacement.
    This is not a PhD thesis but a well established technology.

  85. "Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies"
    That sounds like something the federal govt doesn't (or shouldn't) control – purely an intra-state matter.

    But I guess if you're willing and able to create and throw enough money at anything to "incentivize" what you want, you no longer need to worry about things like that.

  86. Also need to somehow make it easier to mine/refine rare metals within the US. The current restrictions are why the mine/refinery owners pulled out of almost all existing US facilities, leaving china as the primary source of refined rare metals. They're trying to reactivate the Mountain Pass mine refinery (formerly the last large refinery in active service) now (along with a number of newer mines/refineries), but the EPA restrictions are pretty severe (though for good reason mostly, with heavy metals being involved). The big headache is the management of all the thorium byproduct, with all the added issues that brings.

  87. I’m old enough to remember how the last “shovel ready jobs” program worked out.

    We’ve had Amtrak for decades maybe it is time for it to pay for its own repairs?

  88. I wonder if they will remove restrictions on railroads being heavily involved in power infrastructure? Seeing railroads push into the HVDC long distance transmission realm would be an interesting improvement. They have their own alignments already.

  89. possibly something more Bio-Pharma-industrial-distribution in conjunction with a less whiny CDC.. since you know… the next major SARS/coV/MERS- ish 'epsiode' may not be so easily overcome by for-profit businesses — and the great unwashed will ill-advisedly not condone further fascio-lockdowns.

  90. mmm… ARPA structure vs SPAC or other angel investor on 2 – 5 year timeline? Ageing is so long term in finding success, results, clinical approvals (if ever), with so few advanced animal models – big mammals without doing-in primates… methinks more likely mad scientist in a foreign-supported lab under billionaire narcissist. But then… new info gets widely released??

  91. yes. yes. also FRC and some exotic carbon fiber grids and meshes are all the College Civil Grad/ PhD rage…. finding designers and GCs that are comfortable, competent, and cost-effective .. well…

  92. "…like requiring non rusting steel rebar in concrete…"
    well that is the Golden Chalice of Civil and Structural Engineering. Epoxy-coated is the cheapest and then you're into stainless, sacrificial anodes, and other exotica… aside from labor, reinforcement and additives are the big concrete structure costs. Highway pavement tech is worthwhile for sure…

  93. "* invest $40 billion in upgrading research infrastructure in laboratories across the country, including brick-and-mortar facilities and computing capabilities and networks" This is definitely needed.

    A few billion especially to secure the internet to stop hacking of government and corporations.

    I would have included a sliding tax rate for fuel tax, so when prices are low the tax goes up to pay for roads and when prices rise due to supply/demand the tax drops back to a base level.

    I would definitely have included securing access to rare earths and other critical resources as well. Access to the resources and processing plants to refine them.

    A few billion set aside to buy Starships and the services to keep them running (when they are proven reliable) for military use, NASA and economic space development.

    Overall some of the left wish list may have to be scuttled to keep the moderate Democrats onboard, but I still don't see the Republican Party voting for it no matter how good it is just because of partisanship. Both sides would cut the countries throat just to score points against each other. Some of it is good, some of it is stupid like broadband in the age of StarLink and should be left to the market to resolve.

    Better than nothing I guess, and quite a bit of it does need to be done to fix roads and bridges. Probably (definitely) be more effective than the ridiculous tax break. I say tax break (not cut) because it was just added to the debt.

  94. aha. but read the legal definition – gold.
    i took inchoate to mean 'imperfectly formed or formulated' as in ability to reason or in purpose or value.
    though, i also do consider most cyclist values as both oblivious and incoherent.

  95. They should invest money in electrifying railroads, HVDC power lines, reforestation and moving industry to using in site produced hydrogen rather than coal as heat source.

    They should have a program to incentivize fossil fuel power generators to rid their plants and buy into or build renewable generation projects.

  96. The feds had to go after county commissioners in OK in the 80s because the road construction corruption had achieved *expected, everybody does it* status and the state was unable to clean itself up. Too much corruption.

  97. You would not believe the thieving corrupt incompetent highway contractors who thrive in this country. All politically connected unbelievable is this the USA or the USSR?

  98. Good for you bro but Meals & entertainment are 100% deductible now because…. corrupt accountants like to eat.

    But say goodbye to bonus depreciation. Now I am not sure if we can get a new machine shop setup in time…

  99. small business 'pass-through' tax deduction? of all the corrupt side-business rackets… yes, 50% deduct my 'business meal' becuase i uttered the word 'client' while getting toasted on a lunch with my buddy, The Client. gettajob

  100. Please Biden babye take away my 20% LLC deduction and send money now to corrupt incompetent highway contractors.

  101. just like foreign aid. Admirable in intention — Inchoate in practice. big money at a big good thing is not the way. thoughtful, focused, case-by-case — or better yet, wait for it, wait for it…
    ARPA-A – lots a money. lots a talent. high security. minimum oversight. domestic priority. <<it is red-tape – non-focused dreams – ill-guided-venture-funding that's blurring this goal>> yay for the ARPAs – discipline. hierarchy. success-focused.
    this is not a joke. do this.

  102. huh. always thought that total self-D-5 would require a fixed 'local' system to provide data to 'enabled' vehicles. Some german project where the city installs light standards with 'site condition' info.

  103. not convinced on widespread downtown self-driving without 'sidewalk support' (i.e. lidar markers, obstacle signallers, layout feeds, etc.,) that provide data to the car on current conditons in a public-heavy area – at a nominal fee of course (as towns use tolls).

  104. Oooh. possible? A 100A service, 3 hours from civilization, on a 20-acre compound surrounded by the Sierras – at least 50% of the year above 35-deg North? Do i need more than one tesla pack?

  105. solar could be good. envisioning the proliferation of off-the-grid housing and a certain de-centralization of the power system appeals.

  106. agreed on 'war on cars'.
    Cars are an 'everyone wins' investment. You don't have to drive everyday – just buy, use, and facilitate your freedom a few times a week. Allow the parking. Love the chargers. Allow Big Digs and such to proliferate. Nothing changes the dynamic of a city more than removing multi-lane urban streets and creating 'calming zones'. Be person friendly yes – but allow stumbling pedestrians and inchoate cyclists to meander about the pavement among 15mph driving limits – that's the end of a dynamic civilization as we know it.

  107. No, it will not.
    But we do need more Solyndra's, lot and lots more in every field of interest.
    99% will fail, 100% success rate is a fantasy.

  108. People that bring up Solyndra like to gloss over that the DOE program that spawned it ended in the black, as in money paid back with interest, with successful companies like Tesla and a majority others still going strong, hiring American workers and providing jobs. But keep bringing up the one failure.

  109. shame about interfering in local things such as zoning, transit subsidizing, and parking requirements, if i understand it right. Personal vehicles – be they family, lone driver, and/or self-driving are the underlying lynchpin to most productivity, tech, and wealth in the G7 countries (except housing). maybe boost by subsidized EV charging???
    I feel the 'war on cars'

  110. harsh.
    but understandable.
    In a time of < 62% labor participation, reduced income levels overall when gov't transfers are included, entire sectors at < 50% utilization (hospitality), new unemployment claims still 5-10x above pre-pandemic rates – over 12 months in… it is easy to want to undertake society re-building programs.
    Funding to 'new' energy programs would have been super-welcome.
    Funding to 'new' rare-earth/ EV tech mining, refining, and late-stage manufacturing would have been super-welcome.
    Funding to lower corp taxes on 'leading tech' companies would have been super-welcome.
    Looking forward (sarcastically) to cost-over-runs, timeline failures, and missed opportunities on all the Listed AJP objectives. $2T to become $3.5T (without value improvement) by 2024. Ho-hum.

  111. That will fund a lot of Solyndra's. Lots and lots of Solyndra's. And you're fantasizing if you think it's intended to do anything else.

  112. This is not great.
    This is not pro-growth. This is not grand new things. This is not pushing boundaries and wealth and excellence. This is trying to fix broken things; –fix broken people; –fix broken ideas — not realizing that sometimes you have to leave under-performing, under-achieving, and over-rated projects to advance mightily forward. Amtrak? EV charger network? affordable broadband? "…Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies…" -> this is just affordable housing, reducing minimum parking requirements (so we only have bike and transit as far as the eye can see in urban areas – another war on cars), and enabling fill-in projects in upper-middle neighborhoods — all Bleeding-Heart Liberal Nonsense to raise the faltering self-esteem of the charitably-bound. Hey — nothing's better than re-purposing, and providing choice to, the lost and under-utilized to valuable civil and related jobs, but trying to boost the green and clean and affordability of existing systems without seeing significant payback, likely increase in productivity and creativity, and the advancement of systems and tech that will undercut private investment and development to achieve cost-cutting in a non-subsidized way. Total loss.

  113. The NASA Commercial Crew/Cargo way of doing things has shown success. Pay for results, not detailed implementation of *the plan*. Also, the zoning reform should be done in light of Henry George observations about land ownership, there ain't none that is fully legitimate.

  114. For use of existing fusion, far cheaper than man made will ever be for electricity:
    http://www.searchanddiscovery.com/pdfz/documents/2009/70070criswell/ndx_criswell.pdf.html

    related new study does not see the Space opps for reflecting sunlight, planet chauvinist entirely. How long will it take to have the only possible solution to Earth's pop problems NOT ignored? https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25762/reflecting-sunlight-recommendations-for-solar-geoengineering-research-and-research-governance

  115. This sounds honestly great, but I hope some of that $180 billion R&D goes into fusion power research and helping to get a fast track to market. I figure that the more I whine about it, the more likely it is to happen! That's how the world works, right?? ^_~

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