Biden Energy Secretary Eyes Big Green Energy Investment

Date: March 4, 2021

Source: News Room

Jennifer Granholm, after being confirmed by the Senate as the newest Secretary of Energy, has announced that she will be re-activating $40 Billion allocated by Congress to use for loans for businesses in the energy industry. She, as well as the Biden administration, hope to use that money to push the US grid in a greener, more modern direction.

One of the major reasons behind the urgency of the Biden administration's push to reinvigorate the grid is that the US economy is changing quickly. With more electric cars on the road and online activity increasing, the demand for electricity is rising quickly across the country. In order to meet this growing demand with renewable sources of energy, money will have to be invested soon.

Additionally, over the last few years, the aging US electrical grid has begun to bump into the harsh realities of climate change. More frequent episodes of extreme weather have resulted in major blackouts across the country, most notably recently in California due to the wildfires and in Texas due to record low temperatures. Many of these failures could be remedied by simply modernizing or replacing infrastructure that is often many decades old. However, some of the issues stem from political fights both within states and across state lines. For example, Texas has fought hard to cut off its electrical grid from the rest of the country, hoping to retain autonomy in deciding regulation. This autonomy, however, cost them when electricity demand spiked and Texas power plants halted. How quickly Texas will adapt to long term changes in electricity demand as well as the climate, has yet to be seen.

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