On a recent episode of the Lars Larson Show, Lars uses research from John Ley’s article on Clark County Today to highlight the hidden environmental costs of the $9 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement project. According to John’s findings, the project’s much-touted carbon emission reduction would take over 41 years to offset the emissions produced during its construction. With more than half of the bridge dedicated to pedestrians, bicycles, and rail, the CO2 savings are minimal, raising concerns about the project’s true environmental benefits. Lars breaks down these revelations, casting doubt on the green claims surrounding the project.
Read John Ley’s full article on Clark County Today here: The Faux Green Interstate Bridge Replacement Proposal.
Transcript
Well, now it turns out that the planners behind what could end up as the $9 billion Interstate Bridge Replacement on I-5 over the Columbia River aren’t as green as they had planned it to be. Transit activist John Ley dug into the documents and found out what’s known as the Locally Preferred Alternative. The LPA is one of the choices because it’s thought to reduce CO2.
Now greenies, if you didn’t know this already, fears CO2 because they see the gas not as plant food, which is what it is, but as a driver of global warming whose new name is climate change because the predicted warming didn’t actually show up or something like that. State Senator Linda Wilson wanted to know, well, how much will the new bridge cut carbon dioxide?
Even though the planners have given well over half of the new bridge to pedestrians, bicycles and rail? That’s 54% and less than half 46% for cars and trucks. I kid you not. The savings amounts to about 31 metric tons of CO2. At that rate, they calculate it’ll take 41 years for the Interstate Bridge Replacement to save as much CO2 as construction of the bridge actually takes. And then they’ll break even 41 years from now. So the new bridge may be a fake green bridge, according to John Ley’s research, which, by the way, he published at Clark County Today.
No matter. Neither Oregon nor Washington has managed to locate even half of the $9 billion that the bridge is forecast to cost. So maybe they won’t build it anyway. Nor has the Coast Guard granted the required permission to build a bridge that they’ve identified as at least 60ft too short to clear river traffic.
Oh, and by the way, if they do build this excuse for a light rail project, the MAX stop on Hayden Island will be 55ft in the air. And by the way, don’t count on enough elevators to get you there because TriMet will probably put in whatever’s required the bare minimum for ADA and the transit stop at the Vancouver waterfront will be 75 or 80ft in the air. And again, the elevator concerns. Sounds like you’re going to get your exercise hiking up and down if you ride that thing.
