[gmarx]

Hard to blame this on Federalism when states had more relative power in the first half of the 20th century and we were able to complete amazing public works projects on reasonable schedules

[mbg721]

Our tolerance for deaths during construction was higher, though.

[gmarx]

I haven't researched it in depth but I gather a much larger issue is the use and abuse of environmental law by the minority who don't want the projects done

[themacguffinman]

There's a book review about this that suggests it is exactly this abuse of the courts to block governments https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-book-review-public-cit...