To aid the green energy transition, we need to modernize our grid infrastructure

The Hill ^ | 05/12/2024 | SEN. PETER WELCH (D-VT.)

[ChicagoConservative27]

While it’s true that some things get better with age, the United States’ aging transmission infrastructure is not one of them. Updated transmission infrastructure is crucial to reducing emissions and ensuring dependable electricity service. Congress has passed green energy laws to help make this update happen, but now it’s up to a little-known government commission to fully realize the benefits of our transformational climate laws. And they need to act before it’s too late.

It would be an understatement to say our country’s existing transmission infrastructure—the energy cables, towers and transformers that move energy between a generation system and the final distribution and use—is behind the times. Mostly built in the 1950s and ’60s, most of America’s transmission infrastructure has reached or outlived its useful life and is in dire need of upgrades.

[ChicagoConservative27]

Let's start with your house first and you tell us how that goes... Replace your electricity with wind and solar.

[Uncle Miltie]

TRIPLE.

That’s how much we need to increase electricity production and transmission to electrify the American transportation fleet.

[Uncle Miltie]

To triple transmission capacity, landowners and neighbours need to be paid more

https://reneweconomy.com.au/to-triple-transmission-capacity-landowners-and-neighbours-need-to-be-paid-more/#google_vignette

[MattMusson]

That is literally what the two trillion dollar Inflation Reduction Act was all about.

Two Trillion down the rathole, instead of using it to save Social Security.

[Fzob]

What all the government loons fail to tell people when they write laws to outlaw the ICE and gas and oil power and energy is the cost of expanding the electrical distribution and transmission infrastructure is HUGE.

There is a report from MD BGE stating the cost to just expand the infrastructure is somewhere between 40 and 70 billion in just MD. That does not include additional generation. Likey import power from a coal plant in Virginia

[TalBlack]

“Modernize” is a very slight word when considering what would have to be done to the electrical system to get it anywhere near the unicorn spec of leftist dreams.

[MinorityRepublican]

The goal of the liberal elite is to enslave us by turning us into serfs.

[rktman]

Sign me up! 🚫 🐂💨💩

[Openurmind]

“The goal of the liberal elite is to enslave us by turning us into serfs.”

The ulterior motive is to centralize it all onto one switch.

[Tell It Right]

Let's start with your house first and you tell us how that goes... Replace your electricity with wind and solar.

Don't count on it. I know plenty of warmageddon libs, none of whom have solar on their own home. The true believers all believe it's best if other people do the "green" stuff (make the power companies figure out how to make solar and wind work, and the plebes just plug in for power as always).

I'm the only one I know personally who has enough solar to provide most of my power needs (80%, including charging the EV). And I do it to be more self-reliant, not to save the world from our carbon sins. That's the main reason it works well for me. Efficiency and feasibility matter because it impacts my pocketbook.

[Sacajaweau]

Our military runs on fossil fuel. Let’s not be stupid. Bad enough Biden robbed the reserve.

[bankwalker]

Who paid for It? Just curious ...

[PIF]

Build more coal and nuclear power plants! Keep up with China on core power.

[Fungi]

What energy trnsition?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2024/05/what-energy-transition.php

[Tell It Right]

I did. I got some tax credits. But to be honest the tax credits just artificially increased my upfront costs like other subsidies do in other industries (i.e. college tuition).

In fact, it's taking a total of 4 years to get all of my tax credits. (The solar tax credit is non-refundable, but does carry forward.)

I put most of my costs into a HELOC loan. Basically I now make a HELOC payment + tiny power bill instead of what I used to pay: a large power bill + large natural gas bill + lots of gasoline at the pump. Think of the HELOC payment as the cost of saving on energy. And as the HELOC balance is paid down, the HELOC payment goes down too. Thus next year it'll cost me less to save on energy. And less the next year. Then the next. While energy costs go up. (Saving more next year. Then more the next. The the next.) Basically, the HELOC payment + tiny power bill is what I used to pay in year 2019 for power bill + natural gas bill + gasoline. Thus, the energy portion of my budget is like the past 4 years' of inflation didn't happen.

[JJBookman]

40 years of efficiency gains have been eaten up in a few years by people charging their EVs, the capacity is pegged.

No, what we need is more power plants built that are coal and NG fired and NO MORE solar and wind.

[House Atreides]

“ That is literally what the two trillion dollar Inflation Reduction Act was all about.

Two Trillion down the rathole, instead of using it to save Social Security.”
*****************************************************

Hey! A trillion here and a trillion there and it might eventually add up to real money.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

To save the environment we must destroy it by covering all land with solar panels and windmills.

[ComputerGuy]

The green energy transition, if it occurs at all, will not be run by government. It will be gradual and will need to make both technological and fiscal sense. You government types can't make sense of anything. At all.

[Gene Eric]

Once the petro infrastructure is compromised, it’s too late.

Such “transitions” away from energy could be considered a direct threat against the individual, the family, the community.