WASHINGTON POST • June 29, 2021
The electric grid in America is frayed and always operating close to the edge. A compromise reached in the Senate would pump billions of dollars into upgrading the nation’s electricity system, if it becomes law, but the need is immense. And at the same time the Biden administration is pushing for electric cars, trucks and buses, and a widespread conversion to electric heating, all while slashing the emissions of greenhouse gases. The nation’s already strained power grid is either at a turning point or poised to dash all those clean-power visions as it crumbles under the new stresses being placed on it. Perhaps the central issue is chronic congestion on the transmission lines that bring power from where it’s made to where it’s wanted. A consequence of congestion is that wind and solar equipment is sometimes unable to operate because there is no room on the lines to carry their electricity.