In response to the U.S. transportation and energy infrastructure crisis and the impending loss of more than 2.5 million jobs by 2025, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) recently put together an ambitious new initiative. Called “Building to Win,” the initiative serves as a blueprint for the next Congress and the Trump administration to repair roads, bridges, rails, airports, ports and waterways to help keep pace with energy infrastructure needs and revolutionize the infrastructure that makes America the best place in the world to do manufacturing.
“Our ability to compete successfully in the global economy is being held back by roads and bridges in disrepair and ports and airports operating beyond capacity,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “America’s infrastructure is vital to the future of manufacturing in America — to acquire materials for game-changing products, to get our employees to work, and to transport what we make to consumers in our country and around the world.
Whether it is the astounding costs borne by businesses and individuals because of delays and detours or the inadequate means to get products to market and keep costs down, transportation infrastructure in America needs both an urgent fix and a modern reimagining.
“We must seize this moment … Bold action in Washington is finally within reach. Manufacturers want to make sure that money is not wasted and lawmakers tackle the real problem so we can build world-class, 21st-century infrastructure. ‘Building to Win’ achieves these goals and is a powerful proposal that lays out real problems and real solutions.”
According to NAM, modernizing transportation infrastructure would not only jumpstart economic growth, spur job creation and enhance quality of life, but also create momentum that could be harnessed to make progress on other critical fronts such as water utilities, the electric grid, pipelines and digital infrastructure. “Building to Win” is intended to amplify an important conversation about infrastructure that has been underway for decades and serve as an urgent call from manufacturers for elected officials to not only act but act with purpose.
“We depend on infrastructure to get our products to the end market,” explained BTE Technologies Inc. President Chuck Wetherington. “Infrastructure investments and an efficient transportation system will have a direct impact on growing our business.”
Noting the bulk of American energy now comes from inland states like North Dakota, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Ohio, NAM insists the nation’s network of pipelines will need to keep pace and that “by investing in new pipelines and continuing to update the existing network, we can save consumers money and unleash the tremendous job-creating potential of domestic oil and gas exploration.”
With respect to energy infrastructure in particular, “Building to Win” outlines several steps that should be taken by the Trump administration in the coming years to address the country’s need for continued buildout and growth:
• Reform existing laws and regulations to facilitate a more transparent, streamlined and coordinated regulatory process for the siting and permitting of all energy delivery infrastructure, including oil and natural gas pipelines, energy transport by rail, energy export terminals and interstate electric transmission infrastructure.
• Promote new energy infrastructure investments as a means of increasing U.S. infrastructure’s resilience to climate change by designing for projected future climate conditions.
Regulators should work to more quickly approve smart investments.
• Examine innovative financing mechanisms for new energy infrastructure to encourage private investment.
• Coordinate underground infrastructure work for road, water, gas, electric and broadband to yield construction savings and reduce traffic disruptions from construction work.
• Invest in regions without a developed pipeline network to bring down home heating costs in places like New England and make manufacturers more competitive.
For more information, visit www.Nam.org/BuildingtoWin or http://building towin.org. To sign the “Building to Win” petition, text “BUILD” to 52886.
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