State leaders are preparing for the expansion of the Panama Canal.

Virginians were reminded just how valuable the state port is when two private companies offered to pay billions of dollars to take over management of the terminals. Fortunately, the 12-member governing board of the Virginia Port Authority recognized that the facility is more valuable than the bidders were willing to admit.

The board unanimously rejected the proposals to privatize the port and began taking the necessary steps to ensure Virginia makes the most out of opportunities that are steaming this way.

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by Jane Van Ryan

The stars could hardly have shown brighter on the prospects of allowing uranium mining in Virginia than in 2007.

Virginia Uranium Inc., the company hoping to develop the nation’s largest known uranium deposit on a cattle farm in southern Virginia, made a compelling case for lifting a decades-old state ban on uranium mining. The change would save consumers billions of dollars over the life of the mine, create jobs and revenue and, perhaps most importantly, provide a much-needed boost for the faltering economy in southern Virginia, especially in Pittsylvania County.

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Van Ryan is an energy writer and retired communications professional who resides in Rockingham County, Va.

By Charlotte Moore

The consequences of our actions can be rewarding or they can be disappointing. I’d like to outline some truths about the valley in which we live, work and play.

Our local businesses are responsible for our economic survival. When we support a business like Ply Gem Windows, we are not only promoting local jobs, we are helping to provide a service to local developers and businesses that sell their products. The transportation costs are minimal, which helps reduce the costs of their products. The type of products that Ply Gem sells also helps to save our residents money. When insulated windows and doors are installed, energy costs are reduced.

Our quality of life depends a lot on how we do business on the local level.

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Moore represents the Cave Spring District on the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors.

Refusing to expand the insurance program will affect working families as well as some Virginia employers.

Access to medical care will remain within reach for thousands of uninsured Virginians under Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposed revisions to the state budget, although the wait may be a bit longer.

McDonnell preserves a plan in which a legislative commission will oversee ongoing reforms to the government-funded Medicaid insurance program and permit it to expand so long as goals are met regarding efficiencies and quality improvements.

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By Robert Victor

Virginia has been in the news a lot lately for trying to address our woeful transportation system. The new transportation bill is encouraging, yet it is only the first step in building a better Virginia.

The 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure notes that for the state of Virginia, driving on roads in need of repair costs Virginia motorists $1.344 billion a year in extra vehicle repairs and operating costs, or $254 per motorist. Likewise, prior to the new transportation bill, our state had the seventh lowest gas tax in the entire country — a tax whose sole purpose is to provide funding for maintenance of our state roadways. Our failure to invest in infrastructure and invest in the very foundation of Virginia’s economy impacts our time, our quality of life and our wallets.

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Victor lives in Fairfax and is chairman of the 2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure Advisory Council.

By Dan Motley and Paul Anderson

For nearly three decades, Virginia governors and legislators have tried and failed to fix the growing transportation funding crisis in the commonwealth. As dedicated revenues have stagnated, costs to replace our aging infrastructure have steadily climbed to the point where our state will soon be unable to afford even basic maintenance obligations.

Though legislators recognized this impending crisis many years ago, partisan gridlock created by short-term political calculations and ideological litmus tests stifled consideration of substantive, statewide funding ideas in the General Assembly.

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Motley, Norfolk Southern, is chairman of the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce. Anderson, AECOM, is chairman of the Roanoke Regional Chamber Transportation Advocacy Committee.

The developer of the Huff Lane property is not the only one with work left to do.

Roanoke City Council is expected today to agree to a zoning change for the former Huff Lane School so that a developer can build two hotels and a restaurant. While the decision was not as clear-cut as council intended when offering the property for sale, what comes next should be.

Despite the expected 4-3 split, all seven council members must make good on their promise to soften the impact on nearby homeowners by quickly seeing to needed improvements to adjacent park land. So, too, must the city school board continue to renovate Round Hill Elementary School so that students are not shoehorned for long into a building that now combines children from both schools.

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By Kim Stanley

Broadband needs can be met through deliberate partnerships. Cox is proud of our investments in Roanoke and remains committed to its bright future.

In a Feb. 10 editorial (“A promising start on better broadband”), the newspaper credits a local task force of business and government leaders for spurring the region into action to meet its needs for accessible, affordable, high-quality Internet service.

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 Stanley is market vice president of Cox Communications Virginia — Roanoke Market.

The Roanoke Valley is falling behind its neighbors in access to high-quality Internet service, but a regional authority can help it catch up.

The Roanoke Valley doesn’t want its theme song to be the screech and static of a dial-up computer connection.

Most residents have moved beyond that antiquated technology, but even so we’re fast becoming a community reliant on obsolete infrastructure. We just don’t have that annoying racket to warn us that we’re falling behind.

A group of business and government leaders deserve credit for galvanizing the region into action before it’s too late.

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By Sen. Mark R. Warner and Alex Laskey

Here’s an unsettling fact: The U.S.economy wastes more energy than it uses. Each year, 57percent of the energy flowing into our economy — from oil, coal, natural gas or renewables — is wasted as heat, noise and leaks. And this estimate is conservative: It doesn’t include lights that illuminate unoccupied rooms, or air conditioners left running in a vacant home or office.

When you pour a cup of coffee in the morning, you wouldn’t tolerate 57 percent of it dribbling out through a gaping hole in the side of the mug. So why do we allow this to happen to the energy that powers our economy? America’s energy waste doesn’t just put us at the bottom of international rankings (a 2012study ranked the U.S. ninth out of 12 major economies, three places behind China); it’s also costing businesses and households $130 billion per year.

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 Warner, a Democrat, serves on the Senate Banking, Budget, Commerce and Intelligence committees. Laskey is the president and co-founder of Opower, an energy efficiency software company based in Arlington.