August 6, 2007 (LPAC)-- The Ernst & Young consulting firm estimated in a report issued in June that the U.S. has a funding shortfall for infrastructure of $1.6 trillion. This huge amount is merely the money needed to repair existing infrastructure up to acceptable standards! Obviously, some infrastructure must be completely replaced, such as the Minneapolis bridge which collapsed, and others which are ready to fail, and some infrastructure must be completed modernized or built from scratch. EIR estimates total requirements reach $8-9 trillion.

In 2006, the U.S. spent $75 billion on roads. This puts U.S. investment at merely 0.65 percent of GDP (compared to China's 9 percent of GDP).

Other areas of U.S. infrastructure are in comparably decrepit states. The Financial Times reports on a Cambridge Energy Research Associates study which found that the energy sector needs $900 billion in investment in the next 15 years, which is more money than the $750 billion valuation of existing U.S. electricity infrastructure. Siemens of Germany, which installed one-third of U.S. electricity generation, estimates that the level of coal-fired capacity being actively developed has dropped by 25 percent in the last 12 months.