Inside the $1.2 TRILLION Plan to Modernize US Infrastructure - YouTube

The $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Law  

is the largest investment in America’s  physical public assets in decades  

and the biggest commitment ever by the government  to fight climate change. It’s going to have a  

major impact throughout the United States, so  I wanted to lay out what it does, particularly  

the measures aimed at cutting emissions–since  that’s what this series is all about.  

Some have said they don’t think this  bill goes far enough on climate,  

but the incentives offered through these programs  are actually quite substantial and cover many  

sectors of the economy. They will also expand many  city- and county-run programs that have succeeded  

on a local level, enabling them to be implemented  on a national scale. Many of these initiatives and  

technologies will receive more funding than  they have before anywhere in the world.  

The bill also expands the Buy America requirement  for infrastructure materials, which will give a  

much-needed boost to the American manufacturing  sector and industries like steel production.  

Its core is an expansion on the 5-year  transportation infrastructure law known  

as the FAST Act, passed in 2015. So without further ado,  

this is what’s in the BIL. 45% of Americans lack access to public  

transportation and for every $1 billion spent on  transit, 50,000 jobs are created. This bill will  

provide the largest investment in public transit  in American history, improving accessibility and  

safety for millions of commuters, while reducing  transportation sector emissions overall.  

Almost 40K people died in motor  vehicle-related incidents in 2019,  

and unsafe road infrastructure is a major risk  factor for these fatalities. In rural communities,  

up to 40% of roads and 50% of major bridges are  considered structurally deficient or inadequate  

for travel. This bill will repair and rebuild our  roads and fund the first ever Safe Streets and  

Roads program to reduce traffic deaths. On top of traditional infrastructure  

spending, the bill invests an  unprecedented $550 billion over five years  

on dozens of innovative new programs. Plug-in electric vehicle adoption  

is currently hindered by major geographical  gaps in the availability of charging stations.  

To meet the goal of EV’s making up at least  50% of all new car and truck sales by 2030,  

the bill builds out a national network of 500,000  chargers to ease range anxiety and accelerate the  

switchover from gasoline to electric. The EV revolution has begun here in America,  

but we lag far behind when it comes to electric  buses and ferries. To change that, half a billion  

dollars will go toward electrifying the nation’s  school buses, $5 billion for zero emission public  

transit buses, and $2.5 billion dollars toward  electrifying the many ferries on our extensive  

waterways. All of these technologies are currently  dominated by foreign companies, so given the Buy  

American requirement, this investment will  give American companies a big leg up.  

To make sure these vehicles are powered by  renewably-generated electricity, instead  

of fossil fuels, the bill makes the largest  investment in the energy grid in American history.  

One of the factors holding renewables back in  the United States is that solar panels and wind  

turbines tend to be built in rural areas where  there is empty land. But these areas usually  

lack access to the high voltage transmission  lines needed to move electricity efficiently  

over long distances. The bill solves that problem  by funding hundreds of substations and thousands  

of miles of new transmission lines to bring  renewably-generated electricity to cities  

across America. This will also lower everyone’s  energy bills because wind and solar are now the  

lowest cost sources of electricity in the country.  As we build more, they will become even cheaper.  

The potential of this investment to transform  the US electricity landscape over the next decade  

is enormous, and I’ll be dedicating  an entire episode to it soon.  

With 45,000 bridges in poor  condition throughout the country,  

a new program will oversee $40 billion for repairs  and rebuilds, with a particular focus on the  

most economically significant crossings. The largest investment in the 50+ year history  

of Amtrak will modernize America’s  lagging passenger rail network,  

positioning it to play a central role in our  transportation and economic future. A central aim  

is to make rail travel an affordable, efficient,  and enjoyable option, so trips in heavier-emitting  

cars and airplanes are reduced. Defects in airports and ports cause delays and  

jeopardize over 1 million jobs. Without adequate  investments to maintain and upgrade these critical  

systems, many US industries will continue to see  significant reductions in manufacturing potential  

that reduce GDP and increase prices  for consumers, as we’ve seen with the  

bottlenecks and inflation as we struggle through  COVID shutdowns. The bill will fund repairs,  

improve logistics, reduce congestion, and increase  electrification to reduce emissions.  

More than 30 million Americans live in areas  with no high speed internet infrastructure  

and are still suffering seconds-long  waits to load pages and constant video  

buffering–or they have to go to a library or  restaurant just to get something done.  

Eva Melancon and her husband and three kids have  tried all they can to get internet access in  

Sissonville, WV. Though Frontier is one of the  only providers in their area, it’s not even an  

option for their house. We had Wild Blue satellite.  

We had Hughes Net satellite. Then we gave up  on satellite because if it rained or snowed it  

didn’t work. We’ve tried to get regular internet  at the house, Suddenlink or Frontier–they just,  

they won’t come up to our house. This historic investment will guarantee that every  

American has reliable broadband internet access.  That’s a really big deal because in our economy,  

fast internet is life. Beyond  bringing every area up to speed,  

the bill makes permanent a program -  started during the pandemic - that gives  

low-income Americans a $30 a month  voucher for Internet service.  

10 million American households and 400,000 schools  and childcare centers lack access to safe drinking  

water. In 2016 a national scandal erupted when  up to 12,000 children in Michigan were exposed to  

lead after the Governor allowed the water supply  for the city of Flint to become contaminated. Nine  

officials were charged with 34 felony crimes, and  victims were awarded a $641 million settlement.  

Soon, many other parts of the country became  aware of their own lead contamination problems.  

This bill makes improvements in water  infrastructure a national imperative.  

Today the Biden administration detailed its plan  to try to replace every underground drinking water  

pipe in the country in the next ten years. About  half of the children in the US have detectable  

levels of lead in their blood. In 2021, 20 weather disasters with  

losses exceeding $1 billion each affected the  United States, killing a total of 688 people.  

Adjusted for inflation the average number  of these events from 1980–2021 is 7.4,  

but the average for the most recent 5 years  (2017–2021) is 17.2 events–then more per year.  

To make the country more resilient to extreme  weather, a historic $71 billion worth of programs  

will be implemented, including: Flood mitigation and waterway management  

by the Army Corps of Engineers; Water storage, recycling, and ecosystem  

restoration to help California and other  western states deal with drought;  

Wildfire fighting efforts like clearing  dry brush and dead trees that fuel blazes,  

and properly compensating the difficult and  deadly work of wildland firefighting;  

Accurately mapping and forecasting inland and  coastal flooding, including next generation  

water modeling activities; and efforts to  predict, model, and forecast wildfires.  

A $3.5 billion competitive grant program to  protect communities and public assets from  

environmental hazards, like rising seas, tornados,  inland flooding, landslides, and earthquakes.  

Beefing up the Weatherization Assistance Program  that helps low-income households afford energy  

efficiency improvements to their homes that  save them money and cut emissions.  

Cybercriminals targeted the government sector in  the United States more than any other group in  

the world last year. Nationstate actors have  also shown an increased willingness to use  

digital attacks to impact important physical  infrastructure, like the Colonial Pipeline  

cyberattack that led to the shutdown of the  largest conduit for gasoline in the United States,  

and the Oldsmar water plant incident in Florida  where cyber actors obtained unauthorized access  

to the control system’s software to increase the  concentration of sodium hydroxide in the water  

supply for a city of 15,000. The bill sends over  $1 billion dollars to state and local governments  

to implement cyber security plans, and promotes  best practices to secure the energy sector.  

Nuclear power plants accounted for 20% of  the electricity generated in America in 2020.  

But with 21 reactors undergoing decommissioning  and only two new reactors under construction,  

in order to prevent further premature  retirements, the bill dedicates $6 billion  

to the safe operation of these carbon-free  sources of electricity. Maximizing their  

lifespan is critical until renewables and  utility scale storage can meet demand.  

The same principle is true for our  existing fleet of hydro-electric dams.  

The bill invests $700 million to keep them  operating safely and efficiently as the  

energy transition continues. A major source of methane is the  

thousands of leaking natural gas wells that were  abandoned without being properly sealed.  

So the air right down there is  almost enough to light on fire.  

The bill fully funds a program  to find and cap them.  

To develop the technologies to  decarbonize the toughest sectors,  

the department of energy will oversee $21  billion worth of programs, including:  

Developing clean hydrogen to minimize heavy  trucking and industrial sector emissions;  

Scaling and lowering the cost of  carbon and direct air capture,  

which pulls carbon out of the atmosphere and  sequesters it. The basic technology already  

exists, but it’s still far too expensive. And advanced nuclear technology, which are  

safer alternatives to our current generation of  aging reactors. Of the potentially game-changing  

solutions on the horizon, this is one of the most  promising for quickly getting the world to net  

zero emissions. Reactors would be smaller, able  to be scaled quickly, and could produce both the  

heat necessary for heavy industry and generate  the electricity needed for entire cities.  

And last but not least, these programs will  fund the kinds of bold, innovative solutions  

every region needs to grow in a more  dynamic and sustainable way:  

A program to install lower temperature  pavement or tree cover to cool sweltering  

asphalt that blankets our urban centers. Reducing carbon emissions by encouraging  

non-motorized users of the road, replacing  streetlights with energy-efficient alternatives,  

and acquiring zero-emissions  construction equipment.  

To carry out a variety of infrastructure projects  at an 80% federal funding share, a flexible grant  

program for counties that has been very popular  over the years will be expanded. Formerly known  

as TIGER and BUILD, the RAISE program will split  money evenly between rural and urban areas.  

This program alone could fund more than  1,800 projects costing $10 million each.  

To reduce dangerous animal traffic collisions  and improve habitat connectivity the bill  

creates a wildlife crossing pilot program. With smart technologies ready to strengthen  

mobility or revolutionize transportation, the  bill helps counties implement connected vehicle  

systems, sensor-based infrastructure,  drones, and smart grid technologies.  

With our dependence on batteries set to  grow immensely - and current supplies often  

controlled by foreign rivals like China - the bill  builds a robust domestic battery supply chain,  

including the mining and production of critical  minerals, sourcing materials for manufacturing,  

and even recycling critical elements  without any need for new mining.  

In order to take full advantage of the unique  position the Secretary of the Department of  

Transportation will be in to identify and evaluate  needs and opportunities throughout the nation’s  

transport system, the bill creates a competitive  grant program to fund impactful megaprojects:  

with half costing $500m or more,  and half between $100m-500m.  

This works out to around two to three dozen pieces  of world class transportation infrastructure  

that will be built in the next five years that  would otherwise not have been possible.  

So didya get all that? I know it’s a lot.  

As Alice Hill, who directed climate risk planning  in the Obama White House, told the New York Times,  

“This greatly exceeds anything we were  able to get under the Obama administration.  

We’ve made enormous progress.” And here’s how climate journalist  

David Roberts described the bill: This would be transformative–it’s an enormous  

amount of money. I mean, Obama, Obama’s  stimulus had $90 billion for clean energy  

and sparked market revolutions in those markets  - in solar, and wind, and batteries - that have  

brought the cost down by many many multiples  since then, and this is six times that. So  

it’s gonna be huge. If you want to dig a lot deeper,  

consider supporting this Climate Change Solutions  Show with a membership to TDC.video to unlock  

bonus content, like extra long episodes or -  for this video - my research links, organizing  

the most helpful links into a tidy document, so  check them out if you want to learn more.  

And speaking of services that save you time and  stress, check out Wren. Wren is a website where  

you can calculate your carbon footprint,  then offset it by funding a diverse mix  

of carbon reduction projects. It couldn’t be more  straightforward: just answer a few questions about  

your lifestyle to find out your carbon footprint.  Every project on Wren has a monitoring plan  

using tools like satellite imagery or  measuring tree trunks so you can trust  

that they’re making you carbon neutral. This  project pays subsistence farmers in East Africa  

to plant trees and sequester carbon. Wren pays  farmers for how much carbon is sequestered, and  

their farms become more productive because growing  trees improves yield and soil quality. Offset your  

carbon footprint on Wren through the link in the  description. The first 100 people to sign up will  

have 10 extra trees planted in their name. For  a few dollars a month you’re offsetting your  

emissions and supporting your fellow man: win–win,  just like the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill.  

Until next time, I’m Bryce  Plank, thanks for watching.