When T. Boone Pickens launched his Pickens Plan five years, he singled out numerous elements to his energy plan for America. Ending America’s addiction to foreign oil has always been a key. Developing America’s abundant energy resources was another crucial imperative. A third component continues to be upgrading our country’s outdated energy grid.
Unfortunately, the U.S. power transmission network is in such sorry shape that one former Energy Secretary labeled it a “third-world grid.” Getting anything done about this has been next to impossible.
As The New York Times pointed out in an article earlier this month, it’s a challenge that has stumped Democrats and Republican administrations alike.
When President Obama presented his plans last month for executive action that would cut emissions of greenhouse gases, one item on his list was strengthening the power grid. It was on the lists of President George W. Bush and Mr. Clinton, too. But for the most part, experts say the grid is not being changed, at least not on a scale big enough to make much difference.
Five years after the launch of the Pickens Plan, there have been major steps in reducing our dependence on foreign oil. Domestic energy production has jumped by leaps and bounds. But our “third-world grid” is just as decrepit.
For now, there is simply no momentum for a transmission system that would connect the best sites for renewable energy with the biggest areas of demand. “There’s no overall transmission planning for the entire interconnection,” said Vladimir S. Koritarov, deputy director of the Center for Energy, Environmental and Economic Systems Analysis at Argonne National Laboratory.
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