in his column in the NYT this morning, Ezra Klein argues the infrastructure we need to build to decarbonize our energy needs is being stymied by the multiplicity of agencies, federal, state and local which have input into key decisions about our national electricity grid.
While not an insuperable task, Klein says it is underestimated by those who support and oppose the move away from fossil fuels. It has been estimated that renewables capable of supplying the 3-400% increase in electricity needed to offset its use to replace fossil fuels used in heating and transportation would require the landmass of several large states. I can already hear the arguments against these projects by NIMBYs around the nation. The same with the transmission lines needed to carry the power from where it is generated to where it is needed. It dwarfs the scale of the interstate highway system.
Klein remains optimistic the projects necessary for energy evolution can be carried out in the time frame dictated for the avoidance of the worst of climate change. I am more sanguine about the possibility.
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