lj: Well, you will recall my saying I can hear the trains hauling the coal from West Virginia and Western Maryland to the Port of Baltimore. I won't be hearing any train whistles for a long time.
The CSX trains also transport liquid ngas from Williamsport Pennsylvania. I might have mentioned that German generates half of its electricity from coal. They say the coal shipped out of Baltimore goes to Europe, but I believe some goes to Japan, which also burns a lot of coal post Fukishima.
The economic hit from this is not going to be small, no matter what the Wall Street eggheads think.
I95 is the major land transportation route up and down the East Coast. It goes through the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel. HOWEVER, the Key Bridge, which is in the drink, is used for trucks carrying dangerous chemicals, petrol, etc.. They cannot use the Harbor Tunnel for obvious reasons. All of those trucks now have to travel around the already overcrowded Baltimore Beltway, I-695, to get back on I-95 on the other side of the City.
Baltimore (and Maryland) has a nightmare ahead.
Maybe the very worst thing, other than the deaths of the poor souls who were on the Bridge,
is the hit to the local and U.S. economy, and to the energy security of a few of our allies.
The Port of Baltimore provides a lot of employment, directly and indirectly.
Trump 2024. He will waive environmental regulations and make building a new bridge a national priority. He would get it done in under 2 years.
