The Infrastructure Podcast: Episode 98

Guest:  Steve Burrows CBE, ICE Representative for the West Coast of the USA.

LA wildfires + Trump's USA

In today's podcast we go Stateside to catch up on what is happening in the US as the global super power prepares for the latest iteration of the Donald Trump Presidency and as Los Angeles struggles to contain and recover from catastrophic wild fires.

My guest today is Steve Burrows CBE, ICE Representative for the West Coast of the USA. Steve is based in San Francisco and, after a global career in engineering working for Arup, then Aecom and WSP on projects including the Birdsnest Olympic Stadium in Beijing and Apple’s headquarters in California, is now an independent consultant helping infrastructure clients to deliver better outcomes from their investments.

So after 40 years in the region, If anyone has his finger on the West Coast pulse it’s Steve!

Well the Trump presidency is certainly a massive moment for the US and a massive moment for the rest of the world – huge consequences geopolitically and huge impacts economically if Trump follows through on his election promises.

And huge impacts for infrastructure professionals as the administration switches track from renewables and net zero ambition back to the drill baby drill oil and gas centric policies of the past.

Meanwhile of course the very real impact of global climate change has arrived in Los Angeles which is still battling what is certainly one of the worst natural disasters to have hit the city in its history. So far 25 people have been killed with many more still missing and tens of thousands of properties destroyed as fires rage across the parched dry tinder box driven my unprecedented high winds.

It is truly a scene of tragedy on a massive scale.

From an infrastructure perspective both events raise huge questions for the US – not least in a country that has massively underfunded and under maintained is infrastructure assets and that had world leading ambitions for low carbon development..

So make no mistake there are big challenge ahead as professionals attempt to steer the path toward safe, productive and resilient infrastructure. So how are they coping. 

Let's find out.

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