Political Gridlock

Inaction is a threat to long-term electric grid resiliency.

The grid needs capital investments and operational improvements that will protect America’s critical infrastructure against man-made and natural risks of long-term, widespread outages.

The Dangers of Inaction leave our grid vulnerable to potentially catastrophic blackouts.

Inattentive

For many years, solutions to these problems have been dismissed as unaffordable. This is an example of “the perfect being the enemy of the good.” While it is unrealistic to think all potential contributors to this problem can be fixed immediately, many billions of dollars are being spent to build new electric infrastructure that can be protected inexpensively if the work is done up-front. Despite proposing to spend more than a trillion dollars to upgrade US infrastructure, there is virtually nothing in the current proposal to address this problem as we go. As a society, we are missing a life-saving opportunity.

For example, our colleagues at Protect Our Power have offered a number of affordable, common-sense policies here, none of which appear to be destined for inclusion in the bill.