[geeks] electric cars

[Patrick Giagnocavo]

On Oct 25, 2006, at 12:00 AM, Jonathan C. Patschke wrote:
>
> Eminent domain is being used to steal land from taxpayers so that a
> foriegn-owned[0] company might collect tolls for the use of said land.
>
> The TTC will include railways, tollways, and truck expressways.  It 
> will
> have few exits.  It will not pass over existing roads (due to the
> railway).  There will be very few state arteries that will cross the 
> TTC
> (think about it; would -you- want a 12-mile bridge unless you 
> absolutely
> -needed- it?).  The TTC will effectively divide Texas into "corridor
> counties" irrespective of political jurisdiction boundaries.
>

My conspiracy hat says it is much more than this.

Essentially, the plan is to create a series of massive north-south 
highways extending from Mexico up to Canada.

The warehousing and trans-shipment (e.g. container ships from Asia) 
points will be in low-cost Mexico (like the maquiladoras are now).

Imagine how much cheaper you could operate a warehouse in Mexico vs. 
operating one in the USA.

Invest in the automated container-handling setups like the Europeans 
have in some places and you can kiss the CA longshoremen's or stevedore 
unions goodbye, and have your container off the ship and headed for the 
US border in 45 minutes.

The raw materials will come from Canada (they have more than just 
beavers and BC marijuana you know) and some places in the USA.

All of the "value" of many jobs will be sucked out of high-cost USA.  
Canada will also be drained and will remain "hewers of wood and drawers 
of water".

Part of it is our own fault - we still have laws governing railroads 
that were written in 1933; and the necessary improvements to US ports 
have not been done because they would result in net job losses.

Add in the NIMBY-ism concerning anything (power plants, coal or nuke or 
natural gas; power-generating windmills that would spoil Senator 
Chappaquiddick's view; building an offshore LNG terminal) and some 
folks running big corporations will move out of the USA, provided that 
they can still be guaranteed access to the US market.

> Texas is going a step further and turning existing paid-for highways
> into tollways.  Pull up a map of Austin.  Look for US-290 on the east
> side, TX-77 across south Austin, Loop-1 down the west side, and US-183
> up the middle.  TXDoT wants them -all- tolled.
>

My take is that TX lawmakers will go for it anyways, knowing that 
Cintra et al. will have cushy "consultant" jobs open for them the 
moment they leave politics.