Thread by @drvolts

Today on Volts: I take a closer look at my favorite parts of Biden's infrastructure plan, from a new Grid Deployment Authority at DOE to a plan to retrofit a million affordable residences. (If you don't want to read, you can listen!) volts.wtf/p/the-coolest-…

Luv 2 send out an email with "$10 billion" instead of "$10 trillion" in the very first paragraph. Thank goodness things like that don't haunt me.

Hard to pick a favorite part of the jobs bill, but if forced, I might choose this: “a new Grid Deployment Authority at the Department of Energy ... to spur additional high priority, high-voltage transmission lines.” ⚡️⚡️⚡️🤟

One downer note about the plan: I really hate the rhetorical line, "the country's traffic is congested ... therefore, billions on roads & bridges."

Spending money on road infrastructure *does not reduce congestion*. Traffic expands to fill the available road space. Always.

If Dems could afford to speak to citizens as though they were adults (to be clear: they can't), they would say: "traffic congestion is a fixed feature of modern life. The only way you can escape it is to *get out of your f'ing car*. Walk, bike, take the bus or subway."

And then these hypothetical adult citizens would say, "we'd love to, but we need better walk/bike/transit infrastructure!" and Dems would say "as it happens we've got these trillions of dollars to spend, let's do this!" and citizens would say "fuck yeah!" And then unicorns.

One of the points I made in today's post is that Biden's plan would radically reduce US air pollution, with health benefits that would, on their own, more than pay for the plan. Air pollution doesn't get enough attention. Listen to R. Solnit! theguardian.com/commentisfree/…