WASHINGTON — While the Trump administration proposes to make the nation’s electric grid more “resilient” by propping up nuclear and coal-fired power plants, a wide range of energy advocates say there are better — and greener — ways to achieve the same goal.
And they are urging leaders to heed the lessons provided by the massive storms that took down electricity lines in parts of Texas and Florida and left U.S. island territories in the Caribbean in the dark for weeks.
Some lawmakers are already stepping up calls for a more resilient electricity grid that can withstand extreme weather events like strong winds and flooding. Those calls are coming not just from Democrats, but from Republicans who have typically shied away from addressing climate change effects.
While Hurricanes Harvey and Irma caused power blackouts and left electricity poles and lines strewn across streets when they hit the U.S. mainland, the damage was quickly fixed and power was restored in just days.
It was a different story for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, where large parts of the populations remain without electricity.
To be sure, those islands already had rickety electricity infrastructure, and experts had long warned that a major storm would be devastating. Puerto Rico’s electricity grid is more than 40 years old and has been poorly managed, with corrupt leadership and $9 billion in debt.
After mostly restoring power knocked out by Irma, the stronger Maria pummeled Puerto Rico for hours, virtually destroying its already delicate electric system. By late October, around 70 percent of Puerto Rico was still without power, and it could take months before electricity is fully restored.
Senate Environment and Public Works Chairman John Barrasso said many Republicans and Democrats who have visited Puerto Rico are in agreement about building a stronger grid there.
“It seems like the real challenge is electricity and trying to (rebuild) an electricity power plant that is stable, which has not been the case prior to this,” the Wyoming Republican said.
President Donald Trump campaigned partly on the promise to spend $1 trillion rebuilding America’s infrastructure. While no infrastructure package has been introduced, Barrasso said he would back a proposal that includes spending on a grid that is more resilient after extreme weather events. “From the standpoint of energy infrastructure, I think that is an important component of infrastructure overall,” he said.
At an Oct. 31 hearing about federal response to the storm, Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson said Puerto Rico’s power gird needs a long-term plan.
“It was weak, it was fragile before the hurricane, and now it’s offline. What money we spend hopefully can be spent in a manner that we create a more resilient electrical grid that will power a vibrant economy in Puerto Rico for generations to come,” the Wisconsin Republican said.
Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, made a similar point on the Senate floor, saying she wants to explore ways to rebuild an improved electric grid in Puerto Rico “so it does have a resiliency and does have a sustainability that I think is imperative moving forward.”
While lawmakers have focused on Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, much of the U.S. energy system predates the 21st century, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers. Most transmission and distribution lines were built in the 1950s and 1960s, had a 50-year life expectancy and are unprepared to withstand severe weather events.
More than 640,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the lower 48 states’ power grids are at full capacity, according to ASCE’s 2017 Infrastructure Report Card, which awarded the country’s energy infrastructure a grade of D-plus.
“Without greater attention to aging equipment, capacity bottlenecks and increased demand, as well as increasing storm and climate impacts, Americans will likely experience longer and more frequent power interruptions,” the group cautioned.
Despite such warnings, Trump in August revoked federal flood risk management standards put in place by the Obama administration. The standards, issued through an executive order in January 2015, required that federally funded projects meet certain requirements in order to “improve the nation’s resilience to current and future” risk of flooding.
Trump’s executive order to cancel the flood planning standards irked even some in his own party, with the conservative R Street Institute calling the move “shortsighted and ill-considered” and warning it would put taxpayers on the hook for expensive costs associated with damage from floods.