{"id":430,"date":"2010-03-16T14:59:17","date_gmt":"2010-03-16T19:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/?p=430"},"modified":"2010-03-16T15:28:49","modified_gmt":"2010-03-16T20:28:49","slug":"a-green-brownfield%e2%80%a6-now-that%e2%80%99s-an-idea-worth-pursuing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/2010\/03\/16\/a-green-brownfield%e2%80%a6-now-that%e2%80%99s-an-idea-worth-pursuing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Green Brownfield\u2026 Now that\u2019s an Idea Worth Pursuing!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whenever engineers gather\u2014particularly engineers whose hairlines are either receding or tinged with gray\u2014the conversation often turns to the sad state of infrastructure renewal in this country.\u00a0 Those engineers recall the \u201cold days\u201d when either they or their fathers (sorry, very few female engineers in those days) worked on large projects that were actually conceived, approved, and built on budget and on schedule.<\/p>\n

The contract for Hoover Dam was awarded in 1931 and the dam was dedicated in 1935, two years ahead of schedule and about $15,000,000 (30%) under budget.\u00a0 Imagine trying to obtain approval today for that project, or for the approximately 47,000 mile Interstate Highway System, a national treasure that accounts for about one-third of all miles Americans drive. \u00a0Today we are hard-pressed to build a much needed power plant (green or not) or bridge, let alone something of real national significance (such as Yucca Mountain\u2026 billions spent for naught).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Perhaps a new push by the EPA and DOE will help reverse this dreadful record, at least for some of the less controversial infrastructure projects. \u00a0According to an Energybiz Insider<\/em> article<\/a>, those agencies are considering regulations to encourage renewable energy plants (solar, wind, and hydro) on brownfields, that is, contaminated and abandoned industrial sites. \u00a0Every state has such sites, and they total about 450,000 acres in the U.S.<\/p>\n

The article cites a few such success stories, including an abandoned steel mill in New York that is now home to a wind farm, and a U.S. Army facility in Colorado where solar electric panels have been installed.\u00a0 One hopes that even the hardcore NIMBYs might prefer a green energy power plant\u2014however modest in output\u2014to an abandoned, chemical-laden brownfield in their communities.\u00a0 Then again, if the chemical soup on the site caused algae to mutate into a deadly new life form I\u2019m sure there would be intervenors carrying \u201cSave the Scum\u201d placards. \u2014 Dennis Owen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever engineers gather\u2014particularly engineers whose hairlines are either receding or tinged with gray\u2014the conversation often turns to the sad state of infrastructure renewal in this country.\u00a0 Those engineers recall the \u201cold days\u201d when either they or their fathers (sorry, very few female engineers in those days) worked on large projects that were actually conceived, approved, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-technology"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":443,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.encoretechresources.com\/insights\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}