The hurricane that recently devastated Jamaica was yet another ominous sign in the escalating crisis of climate change.
When these storm events occur, I’m reminded of the numerous experts I’ve worked with who warned about the dire effects we face because of the warming of the planet. Their viewpoints were always credible, yet in many corners of America, what they said was considered controversial.
By now, it should be obvious that we need to quickly transition our country’s energy production to renewables because clean energy is cheaper than fossil fuels and it reduces carbon emissions.
On March 26, 2024, the Dali cargo ship hit one of the longest continuous steel truss bridges in the United States. There was a collective world pause when and after Baltimore’s Francis Scott Memorial Key Bridge collapsed.
The accident resulted in the deaths of six immigrant construction workers, a trapped crew, lawsuits, traffic problems, delays in exports and imports, and longer-term community impacts. It is a persistent indicator of how important infrastructure is to the public and regional and national economies.
In 2023, the Port of Baltimore handled about 52 million tons of international cargo valued at $81 billion. Nationally, Baltimore ranks ninth for both total dollar value and tonnage of international cargo, according to Adam Scavette of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
Twenty-eight percent of all U.S. coal exports were transported through the Port of Baltimore, according to the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). It is the 10th-largest port for dry bulk commodities such as coal and grain. It is also a primary port for automobiles and farm equipment.
CBS News reported that the bridge, based on recent analyses, would have been among the top-10 most at-risk bridges in America. It is estimated that the rebuild, which will be federally funded, could cost over $5 billion and be finished in 2028.
“Businesses that employ an awful lot of well-paid middle-class craft workers in this country stand to benefit from this project,” said Brian Turmail, VP of Public Affairs for the Associated General Contractors of America (AGC), in a recent interview for No Time For Delays with Tobin Communications, Inc. (TCI). “Remember that the men and women who are going to be building this bridge include a large number of men and women who voted for President Trump.”
But recently, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore and President Donald Trump were in a verbal clash over the possibility of deploying National Guard troops to Baltimore. Trump then threatened to cut off federal money to construct the new bridge — a missing connector that impacted the lives of nearly half of Baltimore-area residents, according to a study released several months ago by Johns Hopkins University.
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