Here’s Al Gore in the NY Times talking about the need to reform our electrical grid.
Second, we should begin the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used. New high-voltage, low-loss underground lines can be designed with “smart” features that provide consumers with sophisticated information and easy-to-use tools for conserving electricity, eliminating inefficiency and reducing their energy bills. The cost of this modern grid — $400 billion over 10 years — pales in comparison with the annual loss to American business of $120 billion due to the cascading failures that are endemic to our current balkanized and antiquated electricity lines.
I’m sure people out there will quibble with Gore’s numbers, but there is no denying that our infrastructure is a joke. Further there ought to be no denying that antiquated infrastructure, including the electric grid, rail system, and lack of modern power plants will cost us jobs and money in a world where we have to compete against countries that countries that didn’t elect George W. Bush and decide to flake out for 8 years.
This is what make Tom Brokaw and his bizarre belief that every serious person believes the government needs to spend less money (previous standard of seriousness was support for invading Iraq). Not spending money on infrastructure will result in America becoming a third rate economic power and cost us way more then the interest payments on the debt. This stuff isn’t unpublicized or remotely complicated.
Even Tom Friedman isn’t dense enough to miss that you can’t spend a decade talking how the world is increasingly competitive and then not prepare America to compete.
Filed under: Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: Al Gore, Tom Brokaw, Infrastructure, Electric Grid
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Amen, brother.