WASHINGTON, DC, May 12, 2009 -- CG/LA Infrastructure LLC, the world leader in infrastructure project identification and development, announced today the release of the Top 100 US Strategic Infrastructure Projects. The total estimated value of the projects is nearly $465 billion, the investments for which will be spread over an average of five years. Total direct and indirect job creation over the period will be nearly 10 million full-time employment positions. The Top 100 list is released prior to CG/LA's North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum, which will be held September 22-24, 2009 in Washington DC.
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"These projects will form the backbone for a new, competitive, US economy and breathe life into the Obama government's vision going forward," according to Norman F. Anderson, President and CEO of CG/LA. Led by both the Obama Administration's commitment to improving the nation's faltering infrastructure stock and by a regional drive towards carbon-neutral energy and productive infrastructure, the North American Leadership Forum will host not only the top projects in the US, but also the leading projects in Canada and Mexico. "The US economy is in trouble, and these projects define a powerfully competitive, critical path forward," says Anderson.
The Top 100 projects were identified as possessing three specific criteria: (1) strong probability of going forward in the next 12 months; (2) critical as building blocks for US competitiveness; and (3) strong relevance to the Obama government's 'connect the dots' infrastructure priorities. Highlights are the following:
Smart Grid: The Smart Grid is a separate category, best understood as the operating system for the new economy; it is what Warren Buffet calls 'the single most important investment in the US economy.' Fourteen of the 100 projects are tied to the Smart Grid, either directly or through the projects that the Grid enables, including: 6 transmission projects ($25.1 billion), lead by the Midwest's Green Power Express project; and 8 renewable energy projects ($15.3 billion), including wind, solar and energy efficiency, the largest of which is T. Boone Picken's Pampa project.
New Infrastructure: This is the infrastructure meant to serve as "building blocks" -- a model both in terms of finance and physical capacity creation -- for a globally competitive US economy. These projects are largely "carbon-neutral" -- electricity rather than liquids powered -- including: 6 high speed passenger rail projects ($109.4 billion, the largest spend by far on our list), lead by the San Francisco/Los Angeles and Midwest Rail Initiative; and 18 urban mass transit projects ($44.4 billion) including Michigan's Regional Rail Link and Northern Virginia's Dulles Access Corridor project. The visionary $10 billion electric freight rail initiative would also fall into this category.
Traditional Infrastructure: This is what we normally think of as infrastructure; essentially, the physical structures created 50 years ago that have allowed our economy to be competitive and have created opportunities for Americans over the last half-century. These projects were selected based on their ability to renew that competitiveness, including: 17 project in surface transportation ($58.3 billion); 7 projects in ports & logistics ($5 billion); 4 projects in traditional electricity generation ($21.4 billion); 9 projects in natural gas, including pipelines, LNG terminals and exploration ($55.1 billion); and 14 projects in the 'forgotten' infrastructure of water/wastewater ($19 billion).
Roughly 2 million new jobs would be created each year from 2010 through 2014, directly and indirectly, through the development of these 100 strategic infrastructure projects, including jobs in:
• Smart Grid: 839,000 job years
• New Infrastructure: 3.2 million job years
• Traditional Infrastructure: 3.03 million job years
The Global Network for Competitiveness & Opportunity
CG/LA Infrastructure LLC, the world leader in strategic infrastructure project identification and development, created the Leadership Forum in order to bring infrastructure projects to life, for equipment sellers, technology firms, service providers, EPC firms and investors, through more than 60 discrete presentations, a series of high-level keynotes, trend-spotting panel presentations, 6 workshops, and more than 2,500+ pre-scheduled private meetings. CG/LA also manages the North American Strategic Infrastructure Leadership Forum and the Global Infrastructure Leadership Forum.
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