May 14, 2007 (LPAC) - Dr. Hal Cooper, a Seattle-based engineer and transportation consultant, and longtime advocate for an intercontinental railroad connection across the Bering Strait, gave an exclusive interview to the EIR magazine, to comment on and assess the April 24 conference held in Moscow, addressed by Lyndon LaRouche and leading Russian scientists and political leaders, which proposed that the U.S., Canadian, and Russian governments in concert build the tunnel under the Bering Strait.

Addressing the decayed state of the United States rail network, Cooper asserted, "The United States, thanks to the control of these financial interests, and the oil and gas companies, and the highway lobby, and all these groups who want to perpetuate the status quo, no matter how much harm it does to the country, in my opinion, they have done everything that they possibly can to make sure that the American public doesn't even think about the fact that we need to electrify railroads....

"But the plain, simple fact is, oil is getting too expensive. Our entire transport and energy infrastructure in this country was built around the fact that we had cheap oil. Well, it's no longer cheap.... And we have to make a change. And I think it gets to electrifying the economy, far more beyond what we have now. And of course the missing link is transportation. That has to happen. It needs to happen soon. We have to eliminate our petroleum dependency.

"[To realize this,] would mean adding 100,000 megawatts of new electricity, over 20 years. Our generating capacity is 700,000 megawatts now, so that a 15% increase, to 800,000 MW, would satisfy the need to electrify our railroads. Not anything out of the realm of reality."

With respect to Russia, where forces are taking a role to organize for constructing the Bering Strait tunnel now, Cooper noted, "I think what has happened in Moscow is the indicator of a major phase shift in the world....

"And I think that in Russia, they have basically decided to adopt the LaRouche infrastructure development policy, with emphasis on nuclear energy, the emphasis on railroads, the emphasis on economic development and employment creation, which are so contrary to so much of the thinking in the United States today. I think the people in Russia and many of the countries of the world do not have this obsession with political correctness that we have developed in this country, that has prevented us from being responsive to the need for economic development, and for our own national self-interest throughout the world." [for the full EIR interview with Dr. Cooper, see http://www.larouchepub.com/eiw/public/2007/2007_10-19/2007-19/pdf/46-54_719_cooper.pdf