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Infrastructure

Pennsylvania Governor Sues Trump Administration Over Frozen IRA Funds

February 15, 2025 Paige Bennett, EcoWatch. , , , ,
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced a lawsuit on Thursday against President Donald Trump’s administration for freezing funding made available through the Inflation Reduction Act. As Utility Dive reported, Trump ordered a freeze to IRA funds in an executive order made his first day in office. According to the governor’s office, Pennsylvania state agencies have not been able to access the Solar for All funds or other IRA funding, despite a federal judge ruling on Monday that the current administration must comply with a previous order that blocked the IRA funding freeze, CBS News reported.

‘Quantitative Easing With Chinese Characteristics’

February 9, 2025 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. , , , , , ,
China went from one of the poorest countries in the world to global economic powerhouse in a mere four decades. Currently featured in the news is DeepSeek, the free, open source A.I. built by innovative Chinese entrepreneurs which just pricked the massive U.S. A.I. bubble. Even more impressive, however, is the infrastructure China has built, including 26,000 miles of high speed rail, the world’s largest hydroelectric power station, the longest sea-crossing bridge in the world, 100,000 miles of expressway, the world’s first commercial magnetic levitation train, the world’s largest urban metro network, seven of the world’s 10 busiest ports, and solar and wind power generation accounting for over 35% of global renewable energy capacity.

Venezuelan People, Main Foundation Of The Revolutionary Process

February 1, 2025 Alejandra Garcia, Resumen English. , , ,
Venezuela is undergoing a period of profound social transformation, working toward the creation of a society focused on development, self-sustainability, independence, and sovereignty, all while navigating the challenges posed by foreign hostilities, coercive measures, and misinformation campaigns. In this process, community participation plays a crucial role, as it is the key to driving meaningful change and fostering a sustainable future. In this context, on Sunday, Venezuela will hold a historic election unlike any other in the world.

Our Fragile Infrastructure: Lessons From Hurricane Helene

November 5, 2024 Ellen Brown, Scheer Post. , , , , ,
Asheville, North Carolina is known for its historic architecture, vibrant arts scene and as a gateway to the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was a favorite escape for “climate migrants” moving from California, Arizona, and other climate-challenged vicinities, until a “500 year flood” ravaged the city this fall. Hurricane Helene was a wakeup call not just for stricken North Carolina residents but for people across the country following their tragic stories in the media and in the podcasts now favored by young voters for news. “Preppers” well equipped with supplies watched in helpless disbelief as homes washed away in a wall of water and mud, taking emergency supplies in the storm.

Spring Flowers Turn Into Fruits In The Fall

September 23, 2024 Bouthaina Shaaban, Orinoco Tribune. , , , , , ,
Amid the stench of death, aggression, murder, and the extermination of an ancient, noble, and civilized people and the international impotence and hypocrisy that have become a catastrophe for humanity at large, the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation commenced in Beijing between September 4 and 6, with the participation of over fifty African countries and a comprehensive, serious, and profound agenda that touches upon the wisdom and heritage of the ancients. The forum draws upon the spirit of friendship and constructive cooperation to build on these foundations, adding the fruits of human intellect to envision a future based on shared interests, mutual respect, and the pursuit of benefit for all.

China To Give LDCs, Including 33 African Countries, Zero-Tariff Treatment

September 6, 2024 Friends of Socialist China. , , , ,
China has decided to give all least developed countries having diplomatic relations with China, including 33 countries in Africa, zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced on Thursday in a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, the Xinhua News Agency reported. This has made China the first major developing country and the first major economy to take such a step. It will help turn China’s big market into Africa’s big opportunity, Xi said, Xinhua reported. China will expand market access for African agricultural products, deepen cooperation with Africa in e-commerce and other areas, and launch a “China-Africa quality enhancement program,” Xi said.

Even In California, Infrastructure Spending Is A Climate Time Bomb

August 27, 2024 Zack Deutsch-Gross and Corrigan Salerno, Next City. , , ,
With the fifth largest economy in the world, California has for decades set the tone for what is possible on climate, with other states and even countries looking to it for bold policy leadership and direction. Yet while Gov. Gavin Newsom continues to tout California as a climate leader, his transportation agency — operating with little public oversight or accountability — continues to advance harmful projects that will guarantee future increases in emissions. Nowhere is this contradiction more apparent than in how California is spending its Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) dollars. The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law was hailed by the Biden Administration as the biggest investment in climate in U.S. history.

Report: Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive Derailed Partial Ceasefire Talks

August 19, 2024 Dave DeCamp, Antiwar.com. , , , ,
Ukraine’s offensive into Russia’s Kursk Oblast has derailed planned indirect negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian officials that could have resulted in a partial ceasefire, The Washington Post reported on Saturday. The two sides were scheduled to send officials to Qatar for negotiations on an agreement that would halt strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides. Qatari officials would have acted as mediators instead of having the Russian and Ukrainian negotiators meet directly. An unnamed diplomat told the Post that Russia postponed the talks after Ukraine launched its invasion of Kursk on August 6. The diplomat said the talks weren’t called off altogether, saying the Russians “didn’t call off the talks, they said give us time.”

Making Our Communities What They Need To Be

July 15, 2024 Steve Early, Resilience. , , , , ,
The symbols of public-sector infrastructure are often associated with urban areas: major highways and subway systems, for instance; bridges and tunnels; large ports and airports; billions of gallons of fresh water to deliver and hundreds of tons of solid waste to cart away every day. Yet public works departments are no less important in rural areas, where municipal employees and their families, whether members of the National Education Association, the Firefighters union, or the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Workers (AFSCME), are dependent on the same community services they provide. In Middlebury, Vermont, the largest town in rural Addison County, 46-year-old Jeremy Rathbun is one of those public servants.

We Need Our Public Libraries, And Now They Need Us Too

July 4, 2024 Georgia Jensen, Inequality.org. , , ,
If you’ve been anywhere near New York City these past couple weeks, you know it’s been miserable outside, with temperatures in the nineties and a heat advisory warning residents to stay inside. But that’s not always an option, particularly for unhoused or low-income individuals who don’t have access to reliably air-conditioned spaces.  These individuals are often forced to bear the consequences of extreme weather, facing dehydration, heat stroke, and more. For these people, access to cooling centers can be a matter of life and death.  As the latest heatwave drags on across the eastern U.S. and prepares to hit the South next, one of America’s oldest and most beloved social institutions has extended an open invitation to cool off.

Restoring Nature Is Our Only Climate Solution

July 1, 2024 Richard Heinberg, Resilience. , , ,
Climate change is a huge, complicated problem. Therefore, many people have an understandable tendency to mentally simplify it by focusing on just one cause (carbon emissions) and just one solution (alternative energy). Sustainability scholar Jan Konietzko has called this “carbon tunnel vision.” Oversimplifying the problem this way leads to techno-fixes that actually fix nothing. Despite trillions of dollars already spent on low-carbon technologies, carbon emissions are still increasing, and the climate is being destabilized faster than ever. Understanding climate change requires us to embrace complexity: not only are greenhouse gases trapping heat, but we are undermining natural systems that cool the planet’s surface and sequester atmospheric carbon—systems of ice, soil, forest, and ocean.

Contrasting US’ Urban Decay With China’s Extraordinary Infrastructure

June 5, 2024 Roger McKenzie, Friends of Socialist China. , , , ,
Empires always end. All of them. The only question is about the nature of that end. We can see this before our eyes as the United States empire reaches its inevitable end, internationally and domestically. We can see it happening in front of our eyes if we choose to look. One of the advantages of travelling by train instead of flying is you get to see much more of the reality of a country. The Acela Express train ride of 230 miles or so for three hours from New York City to the US capital, Washington DC, was depressing in so many ways. The train itself was better and more comfortable than many I have travelled on in Britain, but the journey revealed a picture of severe urban decay in supposedly the world’s most important and richest nation.

You Can’t Be Neutral In A Flooding House

March 27, 2024 Ankur Singh, In These Times. , , , ,
Cicero, Illinois - A crowd swells outside an auditorium one summer evening in 2023, trying to enter a special town hall meeting. The air fills with chants: ​“Where’s our money?” and ​“El pueblo unido jamás será vencido” (“The people, united, will never be defeated”). Soon, police inform the hundreds outside that no one else is allowed in. It felt apt: We wanted answers about why our city was so dysfunctional, and the city couldn’t even host a proper meeting. I’m a journalist and also a Cicero resident, and I was there because I, too, was angry. Howard Zinn famously said you can’t be neutral on a moving train; it’s also difficult in a flooded house.

Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Created A ‘Climate Time Bomb’ In Black Neighborhoods

March 20, 2024 Adam Mahoney, Black Agenda Report. , , , ,
Nearly 45 years ago, the Acres Homes area north of Houston was the largest unincorporated Black community in the South, a thriving 9-square mile area  where homeownership was the norm. That was until the city of Houston annexed it, and the Interstate 45 highway was built through its heart. In the aftermath, the community’s poverty rate has jumped to almost double the city’s average, and health ailments from pollution  have increased. President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, one of the nation’s most significant investments in curbing climate change, was supposed to consider the history of areas like Acres Homes in an attempt to make communities whole again.

Targeting Of Gaza’s Essential Workers And Infrastructure Is An Attack On All

March 15, 2024 Daniel Bertossa, Public Services International. , , , , , , , ,
Across Gaza, public service workers face scenes of unimaginable devastation: 392 educational facilities destroyed; 132 water wells out of service; 24 hospitals knocked out with the remaining 11 only partially functional. The entire energy grid remains offline due to fuel import restrictions and the severing of external lines. Lack of electricity has forced desalination and water treatment plants to close with wastewater openly flowing in the streets. Lack of washing facilities is forcing many women to take pills to delay their menstruation.
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