Rob McCulloch

America is an exceptional nation. Despite a few shortcomings, our nation’s quality of life and freedom of opportunity are unparalleled.

It is not unreasonable to expect exceptional infrastructure, and kudos to the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) for drawing attention to the significant needs of our nation’s built environment with their recent report card and average D rating of our infrastructure systems. This week, BlueGreen Alliance is spotlighting the sectors ASCE rates to amplify this critical message at http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/blog.

I’ll relate a personal experience to make a far less eloquent point.

In 2011, I was invited to speak at a conference in Frankfurt, Germany. I found a reasonably priced direct flight from Washington to Frankfurt am Main — Germany’s fifth largest city and a leading transport and financial center — and booked a ticket. I patted myself on the back, and sent a confirmation to my German hosts.

Following up, my counterparts point

On July 1, 2009 United Streetcar — an American company based in Oregon — unveiled the first streetcar to be manufactured in America in almost 60 years. The streetcar, intended for Portland’s transit fleet, was built locally with materials supplied by businesses reaching coast to coast. Portland's transit investment secured federal funding in part because they complied with Buy America statutes, provisions of federal infrastructure legislation first implemented by the Reagan administration to support American industries and return taxpayer dollars rightfully to the U.S. economy.

The nation’s economy benefits substantially from Buy America statutes, which have simultaneously saved and created manufacturing jobs as part of our nation’s ongoing economic recovery. A 2009 analysis conducted by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst estimated Buy America requirements in Recovery Act-funded projects increase the number of jobs created in the U.S. by as much as 33 percent compared to overseas procurement.

By supporting domestic production of

The premise that we cannot have good jobs and a clean environment is simply false. The truth is that we can and must transition to a cleaner economy, bolstered by more modern and efficient infrastructure. Doing so ensures we compete effectively against China, Germany and the rest of the world in the 21st century.

Already, Europe and Asia are beating America hands down in deploying advanced transportation technology, such as high-speed rail, transit, and more efficient freight. Growing global markets demand it…and overseas industries are responding.

Meanwhile, we debate how quickly we can strip out protections that will keep us rooted in 20th century technologies that rely on dirty energy.

Ours is an economy that values efficiency — in transportation, manufacturing, energy production and energy use. Ensuring efficiency across these sectors implies the highest and best use of our resources, and has the potential to create millions of good American jobs.

Regulations that protect our air, soil and water are a net benefit to people economic

America’s surface transportation program is long overdue for retooling. Our global competitors are lapping us when it comes to infrastructure investment. Europe spends twice the proportion of GDP on infrastructure as America - and China spends more than triple that. Our crumbling infrastructure needs significant investment if we expect to compete effectively in a 21st century global economy.

We laud Congress for rolling up their sleeves to make infrastructure a priority. Majority Leader Reid and his colleagues in the Senate are moving in the right direction with a pragmatic, fully funded (though short-term) transportation approach, which so far is attracting wide bipartisan support.

The proposal moving forward in the House, however, has many miles yet to go.

One of its biggest detractions is that it de-links transit funding from the Highway Trust Fund. Having transit investment compete with other discretionary priorities in the federal General Fund threatens its long-term viability, and may jeopardize the credit rating of many struggling transit age

We have miles yet to go, but yes, as a first step the Obama Administration has found a winning formula in setting the first-ever fuel and pollution standards for heavy-duty vehicles with broad consensus.

These vehicles consume up to 37 billion gallons of fuel every year and account for 20 percent of greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution from the transportation sector, although they make up just 4 percent of all vehicles on the road. As a result, these standards represent an incredible opportunity to lower fuel costs for truckers, cut pollution, save oil, and create jobs.

The estimated cumulative oil savings — more than 500 million barrels of oil over the 5-year program — is equivalent to what America imported last year from Venezuela and Iraq. Furthermore, the estimated market cost to implement these standards would be $7.7 billion, while truckers would save $28 billion at the pump. This means less money spent on oil and reduced shipping costs for goods and services, which means more money going back into the U.S. economy and into the pocketbooks of American

Our nation’s construction workers are on the forefront of building the infrastructure necessary to grow our economy and create healthy, sustainable communities.

We are moving, albeit slowly, to bring our 20th century transportation system into the 21st, by repairing and upgrading our highways, expanding transit access, modernizing our aviation system, and making the vehicles across these modes more efficient and produced domestically. These investments are necessary to ensure the America competes effectively in the global economy. They are also vital to ensuring the U.S. moves to a clean energy economy, by making the ways we move goods and people more efficient and less polluting.

In addition to promoting efficiency and reducing environmental impact, fair labor practices help satisfy considerations of economic sustainability. In employment terms, this means a job pays a living wage, features benefits, provides avenues for advancement, and is conducted in an environment where the health and safety of workers is paramount.

When workers are able to freely

“Together, the united forces of our communication and transportation systems are dynamic elements in the very name we bear — United States. Without them, we would be a mere alliance of many separate parts.” – President Dwight D. Eisenhower, February 12, 1955.

Facilitating the easy movement of people and goods under a single superhighway system has unified our culture and emboldened the nation to become the world’s leading economic power. With the interstate highway system fully realized, we now must leverage this vast network to serve America in a 21st century global economy.

However, in looking to the future, we must also look in the mirror. According to the Federal Highway Administration, more than half the miles driven on federal highways are on roads that are in less than good condition. Maintenance and repair of our current assets are critical, and we need to upgrade and expand the system to meet the needs of a growing economy and population, and ensure investments contribute to a more efficient system.

Right now, America