pic by torbakhooper

What does the Electrical Grid Initiative, High Speed Rail Initiative, Internet Initiative, and the Gas Line Initiative have in common?

1. They require environmental approvals.
2. They require bringing heavy equipment and laborers into remote locations
3. They require large sums of capital to complete.

I have a suggestion for maximizing the dollars and having greatest impact.

Since high speed rail brings most people to population centers it make sense to use the same corridor to connect the electrical grid  to bring alternative energy to the population centers.  It can also be used to power the high speed rail system.

Since the rail and electrical grid are laying track to transport or running wires for power it would make sense to run the Internet along such routes and thereby creating for every community along the route easy access to tap the resource as a rural community.  The internet cables could be placed in large underground prefab  tunnels along the route to allow for expanded IT technology business which can pay the government for the use of the assets.

On the other side of the track place the underground gas pipeline to bring the fuel to many communities along the route and the larger population centers.

The utilization of the billions to be spent for these four initiatives in a coordinated fashion will allow for thousands of more citizens of the US to feel the positive impact because more projects will be able to be completed.

It is not so much about whether there will be an environmental impact, but why would positive changes have to create four separate environmental impacts.  The joining of the initiatives mitigates the impact of building the infrastructure.

The joining of the initiatives makes it easier to mobilize and deliver the workforce and materials for each of the initiatives.  Nothing like using the same route to coordinate the projects in the same amount of time and possibly keeping individuals employed longer to deliver on multiple projects.

There is not enough money to fund every project for each initiative, however; more projects could be funded  and the number of communities  effected increased if these projects used the same route and the projects managed jointly.