Does Illiana Fight Signal A Right & Left Alliance?

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Does the fight against the Illiana Expressway Toll Road signal an alliance between the right and left wings of American politics?

Environmental and urban core issue advocates seemingly have teamed up with people wary of a large new government project that has ties to international interests in a battle against what they see as a common foe.

The environmental and urban issues concerns are obvious. Roads could cut through wetlands and increase auto and truck traffic, causing more pollution. Urban issues advocacy groups fear new development could cause greater decay in more established cities as people and businesses move away from the urban core.

Here's where it gets interesting for some on the right who oppose interstate highway construction.

Some on the right fear a loss of U.S. sovereignty to multinational forces who seek increased Mexican and Canadian trade along so called NAFTA highways.

From John Newby, publisher of the LaPorte Herald Argus:

Is this entire project just a cover for another agenda, the NAFTA super highway?

While the maps for both the proposed Illiana and the NAFTA project in this area appear very similar, we should at least know and understand those issues as well.

If they aren’t related, that is fine. If they are related in anyway, Americans ought to have chills running down their spines. I’ve seen many remarks and comments concerning the NAFTA superhighway project.

However, most the comments I’ve seen are made out of ignorance of the facts and the agenda behind this massive redistribution of wealth.

For those wanting a brief education on the NAFTA superhighway, visit conservative Republican Congressman Ron Paul’s website located at www.house.gov/paul/tst/tst2006/tst103006.htm.

It’s quite the eye-opener!

Here's what Rep. Paul (R-TX) writes:

The proposed highway is part of a broader plan advanced by a quasi-government organization called the “Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America,” or SPP.

The SPP was first launched in 2005 by the heads of state of Canada, Mexico, and the United States at a summit in Waco.

The SPP was not created by a treaty between the nations involved, nor was Congress involved in any way. Instead, the SPP is an unholy alliance of foreign consortiums and officials from several governments. One principal player is a Spanish construction company, which plans to build the highway and operate it as a toll road. But don’t be fooled: the superhighway proposal is not the result of free market demand, but rather an extension of government-managed trade schemes like NAFTA that benefit politically-connected interests.

The real issue is national sovereignty. Once again, decisions that affect millions of Americans are not being made by those Americans themselves, or even by their elected representatives in Congress. Instead, a handful of elites use their government connections to bypass national legislatures and ignore our Constitution-- which expressly grants Congress the sole authority to regulate international trade.

The ultimate goal is not simply a superhighway, but an integrated North American Union -- complete with a currency, a cross-national bureaucracy, and virtually borderless travel within the Union. Like the European Union, a North American Union would represent another step toward the abolition of national sovereignty altogether.

I bet everyone in this coalition of diverse viewpoints allied against new highways is always careful to not bring up the sovereignty implications of the United Nation's Kyoto Protocol.

Copyright (C) 2007, Christopher C. Hedges, ChristopherHedges.com, All Rights Reserved.

Tech Tags: Illiana Illiana+Expressway Illiana+Legislation Illiana+Toll+Road Interstate Transportation Public+Private+Toll+Roads

Tech Tags: NASCO Supercorridor NAFTA+highway I-80 I-94 The+International+Mid+Continent+Trade+Corridor

I-94 Plans Seek Mexico To Canada Superhighway

I-94 and I-80
will connect Indiana
to a major Mexico
to Canada route.

Could the proposed
Illiana Expressway
from I-57 to I-65
capture some
of the international traffic?

Graphic source: London Telegraph via Infowars

The Illiana Expressway Toll Road -- if built -- might end up getting some traffic as part of a huge highway project supporters hope will stimulate more trade with Mexico and Canada. The international portions would connect Northwest Indiana with the state of Nuevo Leon, Mexico and with the province of Ontario, Canada, as well as points beyond in both countries. It would also explain a reason why the Illiana proposal was modified by Gov. Mitch Daniels to connect I-57 in Illinois to I-94 in Michigan City, before the eastern leg was removed from the project proposal.

Proponents of the new Canada to Mexico highway system praise its economic development potential and state that it only uses existing roadway. The group spearheading the effort also stresses that it isn't a part of the government .

From NASCO:

There is no proposed NAFTA Superhighway. The map is not a plan or blueprint of any kind. The infrastructure depicted on the map is not drawn to scale. The highways shown on the map exist today, and have been enlarged to highlight the NASCO Corridor focus area. They are EXISTING highways 35, I-29 and I-94 (the NASCO Corridor) in the United States, and existing highways connecting to them in Canada and Mexico.

The rail lines have been placed on the map to show NASCO’s multimodal approach.

Our website is to promote NASCO – it is a marketing tool. If the highways were drawn to scale they would be very, very small. The map is intended to show we focus on more than highways. We focus on rail, trucking, inland ports, air cargo – multiple modes of transportation.

The map is a marketing tool – not a plan for new infrastructure or a secretly approved plan by a government agency or administration.

Some opponents fear that the United States will end up becoming a part of an European Union style government comprised of the US, Mexico and Canada -- a North American Union.

The concerns about hastening a North American Union lie with the fact that the new Texas superhighways could be expanded nationwide, and allow Chinese goods landed at a Mexican port to be hauled through the United States. To facilitate that, current limits and restrictions in cross-border travel would need to be minimized.

Some southern Indiana I-69 opponents raise NAFTA as an argument against highway construction.

Writes Steven Higgs, editor of the Bloomington Alternative:

Plans for the Indiana stretch of the NAFTA highway are the most advanced anywhere along the corridor. For that reason, the Southwest Indiana citizen struggle against I-69 is evolving past the not-in-by-backyard (NIMBY) model suggested in your piece into a battleground over global trade.

I-69 is not about NIMBY, Mr. Inskeep, it's about NAFTA. I urge you to stay tuned and check in with us often.

Others fear large highways will cut across their property cutting them off from neighbors while diminishing their farm acreage.

The International
Mid-Continent
Trade Corridor

Reports the London Telegraph via Infowars:

In Texas, the superhighway would be so wide that critics say it would be too expensive to construct overpasses except in the cities, severing tight-knit rural communities.

The superhighway is being promoted by a pressure group, the North America's Supercorridor Coalition, which includes business leaders, trade groups and government officials from Canada, Mexico and the US.

However, officials of the federal government in Washington deny that there is any transnational plan. A member of the Department of Transport told a congressional committee this month that all the government wanted to was improve existing roads.

Many conservatives disagree. They link the highway to agreements being negotiated behind closed doors between the Mexican, American and Canadian governments that they believe will transform the North American Free Trade Association into an EU-style superstate. They point to an agreement signed by Mr Bush, Vicente Fox, then president of Mexico, and Paul Martin, then Canada's prime minister, in Waco, Texas, in March 2005.

According to NASCO, the organization working on the International Mid-Continent Trade Corridor, the superhighway will utilize I-94 as part of the new trade route:

The NASCO “trade and transportation zone” encompasses Interstate Highways 35, 29 and 94, the significant east/west connectors to those highways, as well as rail, inland ports and deep-water ports impacting trade flow in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Even though I'm sure there will be people opposed to improving existing highways out of fears concerning NAFTA, I'm excited that I-80/I-94 could be something that helps stimulate Lake County's economy.

New intermodal projects in Northwest Indiana and Northeast Illinois are planned or are being built. Having good roads to and from major U.S. trading partners could only help all of the new factories and businesses springing up along I-65 in Lake County and the big Ameriplex project in Portage. And, we shouldn't forget the possibilities of increased trade with the Port of Indiana.

Maybe everyone in Northwest Indiana should write their pols urging them to vote against any extension of I-69 to connecting Indianapolis with Evansville because it would be better for Lake County to get a piece of the intermodal and international trade action and the jobs and economic benefits it promises. It's also in Northwest Indiana's best economic interests to keep the international trade action and money away from downstate Indiana as much as possible since the area is often overlooked and ignored by those downstate.

Tech Tags: Illiana Illiana+Expressway Illiana+Legislation Illiana+Toll+Road Interstate Transportation Public+Private+Toll+Roads

Tech Tags: NASCO Supercorridor NAFTA+highway I-80 I-94 The+International+Mid+Continent+Trade+Corridor