Written by William F. Pickard   

The American Way vs. The Appian Way – We need a National Alarm Clock


If the Roman Republic could maintain its infrastructure, how come the infrastructure of our American Republic is falling apart? The answer to this question is fairly simple: Rome’s leaders understood that critical but nonexistent infrastructure poses to the state as great a danger as critical battles that are lost. Therefore, in time of war, the Republic saw to it that the army was backed by the full resources of the state. Whereas, in time of peace, they placed equivalent stress upon perfecting infrastructure that assured both the general well-being of the state and the rapid deployment and resupply of the army. Thus, when Appius Claudius became Censor in 312 BCE, his two immediate actions were: (1) to complete the first aqueduct into Rome, thereby assuring it of a steady supply of potable water; and (2) to construct in only a year the crucial section of the Appian Way between Rome and Capua. The latter gave Rome a safe supply route across the Pontine Marshes, enabling them to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in the Second Samnite War. And it launched them on their path to Empire.

What is America doing about its infrastructure? Well ...... this Spring the American Society of Civil Engineers published the 2013 edition of its quadrennial Report Card for America’s Infrastructure. The good news is that we passed – with a D+ . The bad news is that, to correct this situation, could require a rough doubling of our infrastructure expenditures at an added annual cost of around $650 per citizen per year through 2020. Of course, throughout the last couple of decades, America’s infrastructure grades have reliably relegated it to the Dishonor Roll; but nothing catastrophic has happened (if you discount occasional acts of God like Hurricane Katrina, for which we all paid a good deal after the fact). In short, we still need to get proactive about our infrastructure!

Are we getting proactive? Well ...... in the wake of this Spring’s embarrassing D+ in Infrastructure, President Obama broached a plan. The Infrastructure Report called for $1.61 trillion in additional funds over the next eight years; that’s money over and above what would normally be spent for upkeep and improvement. Whereas the Obama Plan calls for $0.05 trillion, and it’s a bit fuzzy as to whether that’s all new money.

So suppose we do pony up the $1.61 trillion. That gets us out of the woods, right? Don’t be absurd! We still have to spend upwards of $300 billion a year, forever, just to maintain our extant infrastructure. And all-of-the-above does virtually nothing to solve our BIG infrastructure problem: the predictions of respected scientists in respected scientific journals all point to the Age of Fossil Fuel ending in the latter half of this century; and we have to do something. It doesn’t matter whether renewables ultimately are or are not more expensive than coal, oil, and natural gas, because by 2100 those fossil resources will be bidding us adieu. Between now and the end of this century, we must redo totally our energy infrastructure. This imperative the ancient Romans would have regarded as the “moral equivalent of war”. This imperative President Jimmy Carter most assuredly did regard as the “moral equivalent of war”.

Nowhere in the Bible, or the Declaration of Independence, or the Constitution is it written that we have a guarantee of modern infrastructure. For even life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, we must labor diligently. For a modern energy infrastructure, we now must work even harder. Maybe we should build a giant National Alarm Clock near the Capitol. And, whenever Congress is in session, have it ring every hour on the hour – with earthshaking vigor. WAKE UP AMERICA !!!



William F. Pickard, older ‘n’ dirt, is a retiree from Washington University in Saint Louis, where he studies renewable energy.