How To Prepare For The Next Superstorm Sandy

Road construction signs are seen in April, in Springfield, Ill. Much of America’s infrastructure, including its interstate highway system, is more than half a century old and in need of serious work to keep pace with a rising population. (Seth Perlman/AP)

Journalist and author David Cay Johnston has said both New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo could become president, if they follow through on promises made to recover from Sandy, such as getting utilities to get the power back on faster.

But keeping recovery promises is going to be costly.

Cuomo has said it will take $42 billion for New York to bounce back. Christie has estimated that Sandy caused at least $37 billion in damages in New Jersey.

In a cover story for Newsweek called “12 Ways to Stop the Next Sandy,” David Cay Johnston wondered who will pay the long overdue bill on American infrastructure.

He pointed out that the U.S. spends just 2.4 percent of its economy on infrastructure, compared with 5 percent in Europe and 9 percent in China.

Johnston suggested ways to improve infrastructure so that a superstorm can’t wreak as much havoc as Sandy did. For example, replace ageing natural gas pipelines, stop telecommunications companies from shutting down the old copper wire telephone system and promote smaller electrical grids instead of the vast multi-state ones that currently exist.

He also suggested drumming up support for infrastructure projects by posting signs showing drivers how old and out-of-date their bridges are.

Guest:

David Cay Johnston, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist and author of “The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use ‘Plain English’ to Rob You Blind.”

We welcome comments from all of our listeners. Post below. Please stay on topic and be civil. Comments may be moderated by us, but you are solely responsible for the content of your comments.

John DePaula

Great guest! Is a transcript of this show available? I’d like to get an exact quote from the piece about “private wealth is predicated by common wealth” or some such.
- DavidCayJohnston
  
  My phrase is that “all private wealth is built on a foundation of commonwealth.”
  
  This is a principle the Framers clearly understood, unlike a host of current Washington officials and most journalists. It is the publicly paid for common goods — from roads to education to clean water — that enable commerce. THE FINE PRINT shows that we are replacing granite foundations with sand, which washes away in storms as we literally saw with Hurricane Sandy.
Michael M. Ross

What we call “utility
poles”, the physical backbone of the electrical transmission system, would have been a
familiar site in the Civil War, when telegraphy came of age. When they were
co-opted for the purpose of electrical transmission in the late 19th
century it was understood to be a makeshift solution – not a permanent one.
This fact has been forgotten. In our day and age, they are an increasingly
anachronistic marker of American decline: labyrinthine eyesores strung with
spaghetti cables, snuggled against overgrown trees, and exposed to all the
elements of nature. And this is the infrastructure we rely on to light our homes,
run our furnaces, power our modems and routers, and supply the towers that
transmit our cell phone calls.
Maggie

It seems like the improvements are innevitable, it has been for a long time now. It is exiting to just hear new community developing ideas, I just hope that including the addition of mass transportation, like fast trains (yes! like in Europe) are made part of it and that the visionaries suggesting these improvements work together to avoid the demolition of roads/structures that have just been built to accommodate utilities improvements and viceversa.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Dan-Fulton/100000019043153 Dan Fulton

See and read description with video:
http://youtu.be/KIEmhq9RbxU
Concerned Citizen

I would also like to read a transcript. You mentioned a book, I think, but I didn’t catch the title.
- DavidCayJohnston
  
  THE FINE PRINT is the title of my book, the third in a series. The first two, Perfectly Legal and Free Lunch, were NYTimes/WallStJournal bestsellers and the first won the Investigative Book of the Year award and is widely used as a college text on tax policy.
  
  I hope you read my book, which took four years of digging into issue sthat you have not read about in the news, where I was an investigative reporter for four decades.
Em

Why don’t we spend some money on slowing down climate change. The 2008 documentary Six Degrees Could Change The World mentioned all of New York City’s vulnerabilities, but let’s also focus on preventing horrible storms. We need to invest in clean energy!
djgagne

As you talk about the cost to utilities of putting wires, etc underground, and having to get price increases to do so. How about utility companies that are presently giving their employees a 10% bonus each year!! Do these companies really need a price increase? Or do they just need better management and maybe a little competition!!
- DavidCayJohnston
  
  Details, please. And do you mean executives or line workers? In the last two decades the number of utility workers has fallen by a fourth while the national population has grown by a fourth. THE FINE PRINT shows how utilities got rate hikes, especially New Jersey water, and then demanded huge pay cuts from their workers.
michael leonard

Keep your ears tuned to San Diego this week. The CPUC will reveal whether the ratepayers will be liable for SDG&E’s criminal lack of action that led to the 2007 wildfires. Their parent, Sempra Energy, is a privately-owned public utility.
SDG&E has been billing customers for undergrounding costs for 10 years, but still has only completed less than 10% of the city. Pathetic!
Krshutter

Before we generalize all utility companies, know that some do update infrastructure and listen to members . They’re called cooperatives and do not operate like investor owned utilities. Many people do not know the difference and do not realize that they have a choice to use these companies in disputed territories. Also, they have pruning regulations for taking care of right away areas and trees. They don’t just ‘hack’ people’s yards. Cooperatives were founded on providing service to those in need. They only exist because of their members. Don’t forget about these utilities and the great services they provide. They are made up of great people.
- DavidCayJohnston
  
  My book shows how nonprofit electric utilities generally charge far less and provide more reliable service and I show how corporate-owned utilities are the ones being stripped of assets. NJ only has corporate power.
Stephen Jeffery

George Bush reportedly spent $15 billion replacing oceanfront homes, 15000 @ $1million each after Katrina where owners failed to buy flood insurance. FEMA does not have the authority to do this and it was done as a pilot project. Jeb Bush reportedly had to refund to FEMA $100 million for unauthorized reconstruction from hurricane damage including demolishing and rebuilding a home for $800k. US citizens are not responsible for maintaining the tax base of vulnerable communities, especially where many high risk structures are vacation rentals. And certainly not when owners fail to buy flood insurance. It is impossible to hold back the ocean for the entire coast. Utilities are deferring maintenance since FEMA replaces storm damaged infrastructure. The incentives are all wrong. Profits are being privatized and costs socialized. SJ
DavidCayJohnston

Thanks for the comments here. In addition you may want to read my op-ed in today;s New York Times on the telecommunications cartel.
- JimStockton
  
  Thanks for your work, David. The bit about potholes came across my radio just a few minutes after I mentioned to a coworker how last week I drove from Ohio to Montana and was struck by just how poor the interstate system is. Awful asphalt, cracking bridges, rusted or missing guardrails… Sounds like I should check out Stockholm!