Cubin to Leave US House

Wyoming US Representative Barbara Cubin announced Saturday she would not seek re-election for an eighth term to the US House of Representatives, ending months of speculation on what her plans would be. Cubin has missed more than half the roll call votes during her current term, largely due to illnesses by her husband and an injury she suffered.

This is great news for Wyoming's citizens. Cubin has a woeful record of accomplishment in Congress and has grown rather stale in the job. Whether her replacement is a Republican or a Democrat, the new congressperson has a tall agenda facing them, not only on the national agenda but also for the state of Wyoming. The state is in serious need of additional federal funding particularly in the areas of transportation and renewable energy resources and infrastructural development.

Wyoming's highway system is in need of improvements and upgrades. Interstate 80 cuts across the southern part of the state from Utah to Nebraska spanning nearly 400 miles. Enormous increases in semitruck traffic has left the highway in desperate need of maintenance, expansion, and safety improvements. Large stretches of the highway require a third lane in each direction to be added. The interstate interchange of I-80 and I-25 near Cheyenne is in need of a total reconstruction and modernization as it is inadequate and unsafe. Safety improvements to provide additional safeguards to drivers in light of the increased truck traffic is needed such as lighting, signage, ramp and acceleration lane expansion, and increased availability of modern technologies to aid drivers need to be implimented. In addition, highways not part of the interstate system need to be improved or built. A four to six lane interstate level highway is desperately needed between Rawlins and Casper. A similar highway is also needed connecting the Big Horn Basin to Casper. The Casper to Riverton highway needs to be modernized and upgraded to a four to six lane interstate level highway. The Casper beltway needs to be completed on the city's westside linking Wyoming Blvd and CY Avenue to I-25 with the construction of a new highway making that link. Interstate 180 in Cheyenne has never been finished and is still yet to be a non-signaled highway. Additional reststops and pullover areas are needed throughout the state on both interstate and US highways. And funding should be made to make aesthetic and cosmetic improvements to all entrances into Wyoming on the interstates (Nebraska and Utah on I-80; Colorado on I-25; South Dakota and Montana on I-90)Ideally, that would include a border reststop with tourist and historical information and perhaps even a commercialization of these entrances to include restaurants, lodging, and entertainment.

The other transportation area in need of attention is in regard to passenger rail service. A re-establishment of Amtrak service across Southern Wyoming generally along I-80 from Salt Lake City to Denver is something that should really be done. The infrastructure is largely in place but it would have to be coordinated with the UP railroad with their busy coal transportion schedule.It would be nice to see the UP train depots in communities in Southern Wyoming be in use again in their original purposes. With the pending proposal of construction of a highspeed rail corridor from Casper to Albuquerque, a regular connecting rail line from Amtrak would make sense. The economic development and tourism expansion ramifications of this action would be highly beneficial to many.

And in regards to energy infrastructure, transmission lines are needed to be able to send energy that will be generated by wind turbines to where there is population needing to use this energy. This would also open the possibility of development of solar energy facilities as Wyoming has plentiful sunshine that would allow this kind of energy development.

Finally, the US is in desperate need of finding a new transportation fuel based energy to replace oil and gasoline that originates from the politically unstable and volatile Middle East and other regions around the globe. We in Wyoming as well as in Southern Montana have that replacement fuel waiting to be utilized: coal to diesel fuel. This is not a new technology. Germany powered their military during World War II doing just this. There is a 500 year supply of coal in this region and investment in plants to make this conversion are in true need. This diesel fuel is actually a cleaner burning and more environmentally friendly resource and technology exists to capture the CO2 created in the process and utilize it to force natural gas and water from subsurface areas for human and commercial use. Some investment by the federal government is needed to get this new kind of energy into development.

The Cubin representation in Congress never looked into these vital areas, so the next Wyoming Representative in the US House has an opportunity to push this agenda along with many others to help the US become energy independent and Wyoming more economically diverse and safe.

http://cbs4denver.com/wyomingwire/WY--Cubin-Congress/resources_news_html
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