Actually, it’s pretty simple. To deal with climate change, we need to electrify everything, bring lots and lots of renewable energy sources online, and have a grid that can handle them. Renewables are intermittent and unreliable locally, the cynics tell us, but in a big country they are always online somewhere. Our 50-year-old duct-taped together grid isn’t up to the task of getting enough electricity from where it is generated to where it is needed. Permitting, NIMBYism, and our antiquated system of semi-sovereign states are all part of the problem. But also, we just need to throw tons of money at this. The current administration and dysfunctional legislature are maybe considering a small “downpayment” that is the most they consider politically possible. Meanwhile, Asia is running rings around us, not that it is a competition.

Blah blah blah the statistics continue to tell a clear story of U.S. decline. I’m not sure how long I can keep this up – the problem is diagnosed, solutions exist and it is time to take action.

Other countries are zipping ahead in this area. China has emerged as the world’s clear leader in high-voltage transmission, building tens of thousands of miles of these lines to connect its power plants with cities across the vast nation. But while China developed 260 gigawatts of transmission capacity between 2014 and 2021, all of North America added just seven, according to a survey conducted by Iowa State University.

MIT Technology Review

This seems slightly unfair – we had a significant head start on China I would assume, so we might not need to build as much new infrastructure as they do. But this head starter is a driver of our complacency – we have been coasting on past investments for a long time, and we are running out of gas…er, juice. (This reminds me of a Chinese friend asking me once why Americans refer to electricity as “juice”, and I didn’t and still don’t have a good answer.)