House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Representative Rick Larsen, spoke with InfraTalk America Publisher Greg Nadeau about the importance of investing in innovation. When asked about the reauthorization of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Representative Larsen responded:
House of Representatives’ Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Representative Rick Larsen, spoke with InfraTalk America Publisher Greg Nadeau about the importance of investing in innovation. When asked about the reauthorization of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Representative Larsen responded:
“The surprise of the action in passing the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and having the president sign it is something the president called a once in a generation opportunity. I think on the committee we’d like to
see that be once every five years like it used to be.
When you look at the unemployment rate in the country, and you look at the unemployment rate among women and men who are working in construction on these projects throughout the country, you can understand the consistency of employment that a passage of, you know, BIL 2.0, which is not its name – there’s no official name folks, would look like. I think that it is important that we begin preparing for that sooner rather than later.“
They also discussed the electrification of Washington State’s ferry system:
“In Washington State, as an example, our state ferry system is part of our state highway system. We are electrifying the state ferry system to pull those diesel emissions out of our ferry system and to go fully
electric over a period of time.
Our state just let out the first contract to convert two of our state ferries, with an option for a third and then eventually a fourth. Then, every ferry we purchase after that will be electric. That’s an innovation in the U.S. It’s not an innovation in Norway where they do it every day.”
To listen to the full podcast episode or read the transcript, click here.
