The United States has the solution to its dangerous and costly dependence on foreign oil: Electrify the transportation and heating sectors. Doing so would practically eliminate our need to import 70 percent of the oil without which our economy cannot now function. But first we need a new superpower electricity grid. The current grid, which was cobbled together by local and regional utilities from Thomas Edison’s day, is perilously close to capacity and cannot handle any significant amount of increased power generated by wind or solar sources, says Peter Huber, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.
In a study released yesterday at the National Press Club and entitled “The Million-Volt Answer to Oil,” Huber argues that America can boost its electricity production by 50 percent by building a new high-voltage overlay to the existing grid. The new superpower electricity grid would be able to do what the old one cannot – transmit large quantities of electricity long distances to urban centers that need the juice. Just one high-tech, high-voltage wire, which Huber calls “stunningly efficient,” can transmit a million volts of power, enough to propel three jumbo jets. The cost of this new superpower electricity grid – $75 billion – would add just a third of a penny per kilowatt hour to consumers’ bills. That would be more than offset by efficiency savings, since power plants now sit idle half the time because they can’t transmit electricity to where it’s needed most.
If this new superpower electricity grid isn’t built, rolling blackouts throughout the country are far from out of the question, Huber told The Examiner. Metropolitan areas along the East and West coasts are at the point where they cannot build new power plants fast enough to avert a crisis. PJM Interconnection, an independent, federally regulated regional transmission organization, has warned public officials that demand for electricity will exceed transmission capacity in 13 Mid-Atlantic states by 2011 – just three years from now. There’s literally no time to waste.
Like the federal interstate highway system, a new superpower electricity grid would foster an economic boon, since over 60 percent of the U.S. Gross Domestic Product is generated from industries that run on electricity. New technologies are making electricity generation cheaper, cleaner and more efficient than ever – if consumers can get it. But there’s a much more compelling reason that the federal government should jump-start this infrastructure project: National security. Americans will never be economically secure until we can tell the Hugo Chavezes of the world where to stick their oil.
