So, thanks to President Biden’s Infrastructure Bill, remote locations on the Navajo Nation Reservation will be receiving electricity for the first time — ever.
Also, water treatment devices are being developed to help the tribe access clean running water. After decades without.
#controversial opinion: the infrstructure bill was one of the most important bills passed in the past decade (or even... longer)#the fact that biden got it passed can never be understated. that bill sat in congress for YEARS.#we're fixing problems that have been problems for decades because of this bill
Besides all the money to fix all the shit that's broken in the last forty years since we haven't been maintaining things properly and/or replacing them as they wear out, it also includes
$39 billion to modernize transit and improve accessibility--you know how a lot of public transit is not usable for people with disabilities? Here's $39 billion to fix that! And you know how a lot of public transit isn't actually very well designed so it's cumbersome and inefficient to use? Here's money to fix that!
$66 billion for passenger and freight rail--rail is by far the most environmentally friendly and financially efficient way to move people and freight. And we're actually investing in it for the first time in a century.
$7.5 billion to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers to make electric vehicles more practical.
$73 billion to overhaul the nation's power infrastructure, clean energy transmission, and overall energy policy--you know how leftists have been saying for years that renewables are ready to go, why aren't we moving in that direction? Well, that takes money to transition the infrastructure, and here is the money to do it.
$65 billion for broadband development--bringing broadband to rural places where the big corporate ISPs aren't going to bother because they're not profitable enough. With today's economy, a lack of broadband access leaves people isolated disconnected. This is fixing that.
It also MASSIVELY ramps up what the US is doing to make sure everyone has clean water
$15 billion for local governments to replace lead water pipes
$9 billion to address emerging contaminants such as PFAs
$3.5 billion to build water and sewer systems on Indian Reservations
$7 billion to FEMA for handling climate change-related disasters
Many of these line items are orders of magnitude more money than the US has spent on these things before. This is transformational. But the thing is, the Infrastructure Bill was not a one-and-done thing. It's designed to work over several years, because major infrastructure work doesn't just start on a dime. If Trump gets re-elected, all of this goes away.
I have friends who live in Puerto Rico, where the infrastructure is...not great, and this bill gave the island 950 million, which is more than the value of the entire current infrastructure. My friends say since the bill passed they've seen crews out constantly fixing roads, bridges, electric, all the things.
