The Looming Issue & The Dirty Little Secret(s)

Let's take a look, in reverse order, my concerns about the most to alternative energy as our nations primary power source. First, Let me re-emphasize that I believe we must do this - the long needle in the American vein called Petroleum, must be dealt with, and like withdrawal from heroin, it will be painful. But it can be done, but some groundwork has to be done first, So let's get going!

The solution to this problem would seem to be a no-brainer: develop a new and modern power grid as alternative energy sources are developed. Use the old, antiquated grid as a stopgap during the interim and, later, as a backup system for as long as needed. Something similar was done during the creation of the Interstate Highway System. Simple? Yes. Easy? Not on your life, friends!

The grid as built, has minimal redundancy, insufficient safeguards against cascading power outages, and inadequate resistance to weather damage. The result has been massive regional blackouts in the past, as well as far too many localised ones. It's only a matter of time before we suffer national- and even continent-wide grid failures. The grid has to be reconfigured and rebuilt, which will cost a lot of money, will require regulation of power companies, and raise the price of electricity to something closer to its true cost. In other words, it's gonna hurt.

Well, one person's cost is another person's income, so spending the money isn't a problem. Reasonable regulation of corporations is not a bad thing, either. They should either pay more taxes to cover the cost of externalities, or accept regulation. That's only fair. As for higher electricity costs, that will encourage more efficient use of power.

The analogy of the grid to the highway network is apt. The Interstate highway network was conceived, planned, and supervised by the government. Only a power grid conceived, planned, and supervised by the government will do the job. Part of the dirty little secret actually belongs to the environmentalists and states who will not allow the construction of new transmission lines to accommodate wind energy while they lecture the rest of us on how badly we need clean energy and put up roadblocks everywhere to make it as difficult as possible. Presidents, Congresses and the American people have spent the last thirty years not developing a coherent energy policy. None of the possibilities are problem-free. Wind power can be noisy and degrade scenic views. Solar power is uneconomical, additional drilling won't yield enough new energy and won't be available in a reasonable time frame. And as many engineers point out, our infrastructure isn't ready. The curmudgeon in me wants to point out that we deserve this mess we've gotten ourselves into, but that's the easy shot. Instead we need a national debate and determination about how to power the country. Instead we have politicians who seem to think that this problem developed in the last six months and can be solved by granting oil companies more rights to drill. And more tax credits.

We do deserve this mess we're in, but the question is what do we do about it and so far nobody seems to have a good plan.

Another dirty little secret of the clean energy / power grid issue is that while generating it is getting easier, moving it to market is not.

Again - we need to develop a new and modern power grid as alternative energy sources are developed. Use the old, antiquated grid as a stopgap during the interim and, later, as a backup system for as long as needed. Something similar was done during the creation of the Interstate Highway System.