Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

“We are eating the seed-corn of the investments we made in the 1960’s” in roads and other components of distribution infrastructure, says Sen. Mark Warner, (D-Va.).

Funding is the big issue, and it doesn’t help that congress traditionally divides the distribution into sector into pieces: rail, road, waterways, air, etc, as well as geographic divisions. What’s needed, he said, is greater “multimodal integration.”

All of the speakers at The Council on Competitiveness Seminar on “Is America’s Transportation Infrastructure Ready for Global Trade?” echoed that point over the course of their talks.

Four of America’s five major economic sectors depend on the fifth, transportation and distribution, which provides 11 million jobs. Domestic, internal, transport accounts for 85 percent of all commercial transport in the U.S. This “logistic structure” is valued at 10 percent of GDP, according to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and that’s the lowest in the world, meaning one of the most efficient.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the U.S. moves 50 million tons of goods per day, and our supply lines have helped America to remain competitive for 250 years, but now urban congestion and neglected infrastructure are compromising supply line efficiency.

“It’s about more than asphalt,” Warner said. “Supply is about moving goods, but it’s also about moving ideas.” Warner, whose business is telecommunication, advocates including broadband conduits into all new roads in order to extend the broadband infrastructure as inclusively and proactively as possible. “We’re still 15th in the world in terms of broadband environment,” he finished.

Council on Competitiveness President Deborah Wince-Smith extended the topic back to a global scale. “Sales from foreign affiliates of U.S. companies are three times total domestic sales,” she said, and therefore supply line efficiency is important to international competitiveness.

Douglas Oberhelman, Group President, Caterpillar, Said he sometimes can get shipments from Hong Kong faster than he can get them from an American port to their final destination within the U.S.

Overall the diverse group of speakers highlighted that global competitiveness requires:
1. Renovation and expansion of the infrastructure of roads and highways.
2. Smart distribution systems, in the form of information technology and associated technologies like RFID and sensors.
3. A return to education, science, and engineering as national values.
4. integrated, consistent, standardized, stable policies across modalities, regions, tax policy, energy policy and broadband information technology.

Coffee Brown, University of New Mexico, Talk Radio News

Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), Chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, opened the first of a planned series of hearings into practical responses to climate change with, “Dr. Killen, when does climate change become irreversible?”

Dr. Timothy Killen, National Science Foundation, replied that accommodation was becoming more important than prevention. Killen said that present models are imperfect, they show a range of possibilities for each question, but the possibilities are all about how much our world is changing, not whether it is. The overall pattern of warming and increasingly erratic and extreme weather is certain, with floods and droughts occurring back to back in the same places. One other thing the models have in common, is that the changes are already more severe and rapid than predicted, he said.

This is partly because methane gas wasn’t part of earlier models, Killen said. He confirmed that methane is 30-40 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Methane is sequestered in huge amounts in permafrost. So far, only superficial permafrost is melting and releasing the gas but, if it all melted, “Our world would be unrecognizable,” he said.

Rockefeller said this is the 11th plague on man. “The science is overwhelming… The time for arguing whether carbon emission is a factor which affects the health of the earth, or whether our sea level is rising from global warming, is and must be over.”

Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ranking Member, asked about research into weather control. Killen indicated that we could begin such studies, with better tools than in the past.

No one among the senators or the panel questioned the reality or significance of climate change, the discussion was about what could be done.

Killen recommended specific areas of further research in order to improve computer modeling of the effects of any changes. He thought science would then yield better answers in “ten or so years.” In the meantime, we should plan for regional climate change, the local details of which were not yet predictable, rising and more acidic oceans, water scarcity, extreme weather, reduced biodiversity, crumbling ecosystems, and substantial impacts on human health.

Sean Dilweg, National Association of Insurance Commissions, recommended both insurers and government create incentives for people to drive less and use clean energy. Insurers are presently looking into other recommendations.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) suggested “something like EnergyStar on steroids.” A symbol that consumers could look for as a sign that their purchases were part of the solution.,

The Colorado River might carry 20 percent less water by 2050, Katherine Jacobs, Arizona Water Institute, said. There is a great need, she said, for the public and policy makers to be more aware of the science around climate, and to make that science part of important decisions.

Her recommendations also included plans to adapt to now-unavoidable changes, as well as defining the problems around users’ concerns, matching the timing and scale of information to decisions, and establishing credibility of sources in the minds of the public. She submitted several more technical recommendations to the committee as well.

By far the most pro-active panelist was Frank Alix, Powerspan Corporation. His company makes carbon scrubbing and sequestering equipment for coal plants. Still at the prototype stage, their equipment can remove 90 percent of the carbon from coal plant exhaust, pressurize it into liquefied form, and pump it into vast natural underground spaces, where it is expected to remain. Alix estimated that, with full implementation, total carbon emission could be reduced to about 5 percent of what it is now, for about $40 a ton.

Alix said the fastest path to adoption of the scrubbers would be a carbon tax.

U.S. Senate candidate Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME) speaks about the Democratic party’s push for a larger Senate majority. Allen also addressed his stances on issues like health care and oil prices.

On behalf of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke in Denver Wednesday afternoon about the need to expand the Democratic majority in this year’s Senate elections. He introduced six candidates running for seats in the Senate this fall. Among them were former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO), Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM), Rep. Tom Allen (D-ME), Rep. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner.

The Democratic candidates are in close races for eleven Senate seats, and Sen. Reid was optimistic that the party will win the spots. Reid said, “The Democratic majority is slim…we know we need more numbers.”

Reid added that the Democrats are reaching for sixty seats, in order to prevent Republican filibusters, which have recently been used in record numbers. In the 109th Congress, only 54 filibusters were used. By comparison, the 110th Congress has already used a record-breaking 92 filibusters.

After Reid spoke, Sen. Charles Schumer discussed the importance of Wednesday’s meeting. Schumer said, “This gathering doesn’t have thousands of people…but it’s probably the second most important gathering that you will be at for the future of this country,” referring to this week’s Democratic National Convention.

Schumer emphasized the fact that the Senate races are just as important as the Presidential race. A Democratic majority must be elected, according to Schumer, in order to fulfill the party’s promise of change by passing comprehensive legislation. He acknowledged that if Sen. Barack Obama is elected President, he will need the support of a Democratic-led Congress.

The six candidates that joined Reid and Schumer will be running competitive races against Republican incumbents.

While the candidates all discussed change, most touched on specific issues. Allen and Shaheen shared a concern about the cost of heating oil, while Warner, the keynote speaker at the DNC on Wednesday, said he will take a stand to improve the country’s infrastructure.

Warner said “This is one of these moments in history…what happens over the next two, four, six, eight years will determine whether this country has the same preeminence in the twenty-first century that it had in the twentieth.”

The DSCC and some Senatorial candidates will address the delegates about their push for Senate seats at the DNC after the Roll Call Vote, which will take place Wednesday evening.

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Mark Warner interviewed at the Families USA 2008 annual conference by TRNS talk radio hosts