Union leaders, representatives of the solar energy industry and other community activists joined Democratic congressional candidate Bob Lord and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) for a round table discussion about the future of infrastructure and energy in Arizona.

"We have to look at the bigger picture," said Lord. "We still have the most and best infrastructure in the world, but it's falling apart." 

Lord, who is challenging U.S. Rep. John Shadegg (R-Phoenix) for his 3rd district seat, spent most of the discussion listening, as those in attendance ticked off a long list of concerns they have regarding the health and sustainability of Arizona's transportation, water and electrical systems.

Bob Bean, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1433, expressed alarm at the millions of dollars in cuts to bus service in Phoenix and Glendale, which he said would cost over 300 jobs and limit bus services.

Phoenix City Councilman Michael Nowakowski spoke about how, due to cuts in revenue sharing with the state, Phoenix will have to rely more heavily on federal dollars to keep its transportation infrastructure up-to-date.

Energy was also a top concern. Lord has long been a proponent of "net metering," through which solar panels on individual residences can put electricity back into the grid when the houses aren't consuming as much as the panels are producing. Tom Alston and Michael Neary, representatives of the solar industry, said many of the necessary elements for implementing net metering on a wide scale are already in place, but the consensus was that lack of political will was holding back its broader implementation.  

It was Blumenauer, though, who offered the most ominous warnings about the potential consequences of letting infrastructure improvements and combatting global climate change go by the wayside.

"Phoenix is facing the starkest picture of any city except maybe Miami," said Blumenauer, who serves on the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming and was on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee until 2007.

"Estimates say there may be six million people [in Phoenix] by 2050. If the average daily temperature is topping 100 degrees and you haven't solved the issues of transportation and water, do you think there will be six million people?"

Blumenauer and Lord both said that solving these issues, at the local and national levels, comes down to leadership.

"We can't afford to screw around like we did under the Bush administration," said Blumenauer, calling the current administration the "most anti-infrastructure in history."

Blumenauer said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) considers infrastructure improvements and a shift toward renewable energy "one of her highest priorities."

For the proposed changes to be successful, however, Lord said it would require a "change in mindset."

"We have to think of the dollars we put into infrastructure, into energy and into our human resources, education, as an investment," Lord said.

Lord and Blumenauer agreed that the sorts of programs they were advocating would require a huge dollar investment at the federal level, though Blumenauer said much of it would "pay for itself" through creating jobs and saving money with more effecient energy policy.

"Look at the Wall Street bill we just passed," said Blumenauer. "How many people will be put to work with what we passed?" He said that even $10 billion of the more than $800 billion in the financial bailout bill would go a long way toward implementing the changes he was talking about. 

On the subject of costs, Blumenauer acknowledged there would have to be "reprogramming," and that health care reform might have to be slowed down in order to make way for energy and infrastructure development.

Lord, too, said that it was a "matter of prioritization," and tied the current problem to his opponent John Shadegg.

 "Shadegg has been in office for almost 14 years, and he's pushed for less and less government."

"We need government," said Lord.