States and local governments should be considering infrastructure projects using money the federal government has set aside in the infrastructure bill, despite the rise in oil prices and many localities' suspension of gas taxes in response.
"We know that communities rise or fall based on the quality of their infrastructure," Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg told an audience of local government officials as part of the DOT’s Building a Better America Rural Infrastructure Tour in Tell City, Indiana, on Wednesday. "Infrastructure is, at the end of the day, the foundation on which we build our future."
Still, he said, local officials should take "steps that wouldn't normally be on the table” to offer consumers "relief, given what folks are paying at the pump.”
Buttigieg also highlighted the need to protect the environment. Decisions on roads and other infrastructure need to "be balanced against the very important environmental considerations that are part of this.”
The Biden administration is stressing that investments in rural infrastructure will outlast the price concerns that are a direct result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “Our hope is that the extreme conditions that led to this, with the oil producing country, mounting an invasion and getting into a war, are not conditions that are going to exist for forever,” Buttigieg said.
The visit was in part to highlight the $1.6 million grant Tell City received in December 2021 to improve its Ohio River Pier Project The DOT has earmarked $241 million for improvements at port facilities across the country.
Buttigieg also touted the progress rural communities have made in funding infrastructure projects, including electric vehicle charging stations.
“We've seen states with large rural populations — Utah, Tennessee, Alabama — at work building out the [electric] charging stations that are needed,” he said. “And if we get that right, something that's especially important to a place like Indiana is we're building up a U.S.-based automotive industry for the next generation of vehicles just as we did for the last.”
His remarks also pushed states, regional transportation planning organizations and local and tribal governments to apply for the DOT’s Rural Surface Transportation Grant program that intends to allocate $1 billion between 2022 and 2026.
