I would rather this have gone to a Bering Strait Bridge. Since we don't know how to mine coal anymore without getting people killed, I want a conncection to Russia to get more and more fossil fuel from them.

The coal would go to Texas as would the oil. Then and only then would the Texas system be needed. I have seen plans for slurry pipelines going across the nation, as well. The recent Shockwave covered edition of American Scientist has an article that coal can be used to replace petrolium products with new advances in chemistry.

Stalin and others wanted a Russian presence in the far east--but the great-grandchildren of this diaspora are returning to Moscow and becoming a burden. Seeing rails go to Siberia for forestry, coal/lignite and new oil deposits will vastly reduce the need for oil in the middle east.

We need to spend money on transportation--but Bering Strait Bridge/Tunnel needs to come first. With that worst part done, rails/roads can be built to them. A break of gage is dealt with in Europe, and the wider Russian tracks might be adopted across Alaska. If we are going to develop ANWR--why not take a jog to the bridge.

The Russians have staying power. In Christmas of 2002, there was an announcement of the complete electrification of the Trans-Siberian Railway after 74 years of work. Though this massive undertaking--and its Baikal-Amur Mainline clone gutted the Soviet budgets--it proved vital in WWII and would pay for itself with a link to the USA.

We dn't spend enough on transportation--and even when we do--it is on the wrong things.

I want a true Imperial Presidency--but only with an icy technocrat infrastructuralist like myself at the helm.