Fogbow

Compounding this, electricity likely will be even more important in coming years amid a push to electrify cars and homes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. That has many grid experts saying it's time to upgrade the country's electricity infrastructure.

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"We planned this grid for Ozzie and Harriet weather and we are now facing Mad Max," says energy consultant Alison Silverstein.

The pop culture references are her way of saying that the grid was designed for technology and weather that existed in the 1950s, '60s and '70s. Now, she says, it needs to be updated for a future that includes climate change.

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The number of weather disasters with losses over a billion dollars is increasing, according to NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information. And the group Climate Central says that since 2000 there's been a 67 percent increase in major power outages from weather and climate related events.

U.S. President Joe Biden next week will travel to Pittsburgh, where he kicked off his presidential campaign in 2019, to unveil a multitrillion-dollar plan to rebuild America’s infrastructure, choosing a backdrop of an American city with a long union history.

Biden is expected to push for a “Build Back Better” plan that could have a price tag as high as $4 trillion to pay for traditional roads and bridges while also tackling climate change and domestic policy issues like income equality.

Biden is expected to travel to the Western Pennsylvania city on March 31, the White House said on Wednesday. Pittsburgh is a blue-collar city that is home to the United Steel Workers union, long a Biden ally.

The legislative effort is expected to be split into two parts, an initial package the deals with traditional transportation projects and a second one that addresses domestic priorities, such as universal prekindergarten, national childcare and free community college tuition.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Joe Manchin said Wednesday that he favors a large infrastructure package that would be paid for in part by raising tax revenues — a point of contention between the two parties.

"I'm sure of one thing: It’s going to be enormous," the West Virginia Democrat, who is seen as a swing vote in a chamber divided 50-50, told reporters at the Capitol.

While he didn't predict a price tag, Manchin said Congress should do "everything we possibly can" to pay for it. He said there should be "tax adjustments" to former President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax law to boost revenues, including by raising the corporate rate from the current 21 percent to at least 25 percent.

The tax benefits in the Republican law were "weighted in one direction to the upper end," Manchin said. He also suggested an "infrastructure bank" paid for with revenues, potentially a value-added tax, that would be used for "rebuilding America."

Uber Boat by Thames Clippers will run a service carrying pedestrians and cyclists across the River Thames at Hammersmith, in west London, reducing the disruption caused by the closure of a Victorian bridge, the city’s transport authority said.

Built in 1887, Hammersmith Bridge has been closed to motor traffic since April 2019 following the discovery of micro-fractures in its brittle cast iron pedestals.

In August 2020, it was closed to pedestrians and cyclists and river traffic beneath it was banned after a sudden increase in the size of the fractures led to fears that it could collapse without warning.

Transport for London said on Tuesday the ferry service will have a minimum capacity of 800 passengers at peak times and the cost of a fare will be 1.55 pounds ($2.12). The service is expected to begin taking passengers at the end of the summer.

Chris Christie has accused President Joe Biden of 'lying' about the contents of a massive infrastructure spending proposal -- but quickly faced questions about his own credentials on infrastructure from critics who recalled his infamous 'Bridgegate' scandal.

'You cannot call a $400 billion plan, to force unionization in states, to say that taking care of increasing Medicaid payments in states is infrastructure,' Christie said Sunday on ABC News' This Week.

'This is the care economy. This is care infrastructure. It's baloney,' he added. 'Lying is not popular. It's not infrastructure.'

President Joe Biden visited an Amtrak train station on Friday to promote his $1.9 trillion infrastructure proposal, saying the United States is “way behind” in improving its transportation grid and needs to do so to keep up with China.

The nation’s passenger rail service is eyeing the 250-mile swath across Ohio for one of 39 proposed new routes. Using its success in the populous Northeast Corridor as a model, Amtrak is pushing a $75 billion expansion to bring trains to dozens of cities and towns across the nation.

The ambitious plan coincides with the passenger railroad gaining a powerful ally in the White House, where new priorities in Washington laud rail and alternate modes of transportation. The proposal comes as the nation targets infrastructure investments to exit a coronavirus pandemic-induced economic crisis, while state and local officials increasingly are open to options that address highway congestion and climate change.



Expanding the nation’s train network in 15 years, as the passenger rail proposes, rests on Amtrak’s ability to secure billions of dollars both for the service and for costly improvements to an aging and inadequate rail infrastructure — and on multiple states being willing partners. Opponents say there is insufficient demand to warrant the proposal’s hefty price tag.

Even if those goals are conquered, Amtrak would still need a nation in love with cars to come back to the rails.

BREAKING: Senate votes to start work on Biden's infrastructure plan

GOP 'YES' VOTES:
Blunt
Burr
Capito
Cassidy
Collins
Cramer
Crapo
Graham
Grassley
Hoeven
McConnell
Murkowski
Portman
Risch
Romney
Tillis
Young