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I would like to propose one really huge Government Project--but it's the sort of Big Program Conservatives would spend money on: The Trans-American Seaway. It would link the Pacific Ocean with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, provide irrigation water for frequently drought-plagued areas of the West, restore a number of ancient lakes in the Intermountain West that would provide rain for better grazing and logging over the western third of the United States. The lakes would also turn the area into Miami Beach in the summer and ski slopes in the winter and the mountain ridges would become islands.
The Seaway could be paid for out of the current Federal Gas Tax like the Interstate Highway Stystem was while Federal grants to states for transportation would be cut to just what the states cannot reasonably maintain themselves from the gas tax revenue they recieve from that stretch of highway--I-90 through Pennsylvania would be an example.
First step would be to build several nuclear power plants in California to produce hydrogen by passing electric current through seawater. This hydrogen would be burned to provide fresh water for the Seaway. If oil companies want to buy some of this hydrogen to sell as fuel that would defray the costs. (Hydrogen can be used wherever natural gas or propane are used and will burn in current automobile engines if a propane-style gas tank is added.) When the Seaway enters the Great Basin a lot of construction costs can be saved by letting the water fill the numerous dry lake beds. The Seaway would then continue across the Rockies and on to the Great Lakes. The fresh water would irrigate the arid High Plains. Seagoing cargo ships could dock at Salt Lake City or Denver or Omaha.
It would be a Big Project and take 10-20 years, but the economic boom it would bring would pay for the program many times over.
I would like to propose one really huge Government Project--but it's the sort of Big Program Conservatives would spend money on: The Trans-American Seaway. It would link the Pacific Ocean with the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway, provide irrigation water for frequently drought-plagued areas of the West, restore a number of ancient lakes in the Intermountain West that would provide rain for better grazing and logging over the western third of the United States. The lakes would also turn the area into Miami Beach in the summer and ski slopes in the winter and the mountain ridges would become islands.
I think your idea is flawed. Ocean water won't work for irrigation, so you would have to use the water from the great lakes. However, the great lakes belong to both Canada and the USA and neither can divert water away without permission. Plus, you have to deal with the roads, houses, and businesses that are in the way.
I think your idea is flawed. Ocean water won't work for irrigation, so you would have to use the water from the great lakes. However, the great lakes belong to both Canada and the USA and neither can divert water away without permission. Plus, you have to deal with the roads, houses, and businesses that are in the way.
You must have missed this paragraph:
"First step would be to build several nuclear power plants in California to produce hydrogen by passing electric current through seawater. This hydrogen would be burned to provide fresh water for the Seaway. If oil companies want to buy some of this hydrogen to sell as fuel that would defray the costs. (Hydrogen can be used wherever natural gas or propane are used and will burn in current automobile engines if a propane-style gas tank is added.) When the Seaway enters the Great Basin a lot of construction costs can be saved by letting the water fill the numerous dry lake beds. The Seaway would then continue across the Rockies and on to the Great Lakes. The fresh water would irrigate the arid High Plains. Seagoing cargo ships could dock at Salt Lake City or Denver or Omaha."
There would be very few houses or businesses in the way and these would be dealt with in the same manner as they are with any transportation project. Conservatives have always supported this aspect of emminant domain. As for roads, I'll let you think about that the next time you drive across a bridge or an overpass.
It would be a Big Project and take 10-20 years, but the economic boom it would bring would pay for the program many times over.
I enjoyed your post and it's an intriguing idea, but we live in a country where the environmentalist have sabotaged our energy production to the point we can't even build something simple like the Keystone pipeline.
This idea has been proposed by quite a few knowedgeable engineers. You might want to check with them.
I never said it's not possible, spend enough money anything is possible, but there is a good reason people don't drive around with high pressure tanks of hydrogen on board.
Canada would be a little upset about the Great Lakes.....it is their water too.
I suggest you read the Original Post. If that's too much then read post#4 where your question was answered in reply to another poster.
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