West Coast Infrastructure Exchange (WCX)

Inception

According to the original Wikipedia post, created by staff of Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber in November 2012:

California, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia combined to form the West Coast Infrastructure Exchange (WCX), which was announced on Nov. 14, 2012. The partnership was launched to develop innovative methods to finance and facilitate development the infrastructure needed to improve the region’s economic competitiveness, support jobs and families and to enhance and protect the quality of life on the Pacific Coast.

Public infrastructure needs are acute. All West Coast states and the province of British Columbia need to expand and upgrade energy and transport facilities, update water and wastewater treatment plants, improve airports and dams and construct other projects. At the same time, state and local governments face limits on available financing through traditional sources. The West Coast Infrastructure Exchange is designed to tap the expertise of development and finance leaders to save money and find innovative financing methods. A study commissioned by the participants supports the idea of a collaborative mechanism like the WCX and finds that infrastructure needs on the West Coast will exceed $1 trillion in the next 30 years.[1]

The announcement was made by Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, California State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Oregon State Treasurer Ted Wheeler. The Exchange will be in a start up phase through 2013.

The Exchange is being coordinated by the Oregon State Treasury. Development was funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.[2]

History

Prior to the creation of the Wikipedia announcement, the first publication regarding the Exchange was a November 2012 paper by CH2M Hill, entitled "West Coast Infrastructure Exchange, Final Report."[3] According to that report, CH2M Hill first began researching creation of the Exchange in the spring of 2012 on behalf of what it referred to as "Western States." That publication describes the Exchange acting as an "acceleration vehicle" to insure to investors a “predictable deal flow” of public works contracts not hampered by “bureaucratic delays and environmental review requirements.” To this end, the Exchange was described as functioning like a “straw man” in order to seek influence at the state government level, operating under an acronym ("WCX") that was chosen “because it is ambiguous,” to avoid conflict-of-interest accusations. The report discussed strategies for funding over a trillion dollars in public works contracts sought by the American Society of Civil Engineers in its "Grade D" report card on American public works,[4] though the report also shows that some study participants questioned the validity of the ASCE's report card. The report states that funding for this trillion-dollar initiative was to be sought via investment from “pension funds, insurance funds and other institutions,” which it identified as more likely to “accept infrastructure project risk.” Toward this end, the report recommended advising investors to lower their return expectations to 1/3 of what they traditionally expected. The report envisioned that by 2016 public works contracts would transition from the traditional Design Build (DB) to Design Build Finance Operate (DBFO) format, meaning that public works contractors would have greater control throughout a project's life span.

Related Issues

The Exchange's first President, Dan Carol, served simultaneously as Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber's Director of Multi-State and Strategic Initiatives.[5] but left that position following Governor Kitzhaber's resignation[6][7] in the wake of an ongoing FBI investigation.[8]

References

  1. ↑ Infrastructure study
  2. ↑ "Press release". Oregon.gov. Retrieved 2012-11-22.
  3. ↑ https://www.calpers.ca.gov/docs/forms-publications/wcx-final-report.pdf
  4. ↑ http://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/
  5. ↑ https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-carol-a342985
  6. ↑ http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/02/john_kitzhaber_must_resign_edi.html
  7. ↑ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2015/02/05/the-oregonian-wants-gov-kitzhaber-to-resign/
  8. ↑ http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2015/02/oregon_governor_john_kitzhaber_10.html

External links

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