Obama Announces $3.4 Billion in ‘Smart-Grid’ Grants

[scandal 951]

Obama Announces $3.4 Billion in ‘Smart-Grid’ Grants

By Nicholas Johnston and Roger Runningen

Oct. 27 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama today announced $3.4 billion in government grants to improve the efficiency of the nation’s electrical transmission network.

“We are making the largest-ever investment in a smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid,” while boosting a “clean-energy economy,” Obama said in Arcadia, Florida, at one of the nation’s largest solar-power generating facilities.

The grants, ranging from $400,000 to $200 million, will be used to develop and install “smart-grid” technology to make electricity transmission more reliable and aid the delivery of energy generated from sources like wind and solar power.

The money comes from the $787 billion economic stimulus legislation approved by Congress in February. Jared Bernstein, chief economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, told reporters last night the grants will “save or create tens of thousands” of jobs.

Bernstein said Oct. 15 the stimulus legislation has created or saved about 1 million jobs since it was enacted. The nation’s unemployment rate rose to 9.8 percent last month, and the president has said he expects it to exceed 10 percent before it starts coming down.

Biden, in a separate event in his home state of Delaware, announced today that Fisker Automotive Inc. is reopening a shuttered former General Motors Corp. factory in Wilmington to produce long-range, plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.

“While some wanted to write off America’s auto industry, we said no,” Biden said. “A new chapter had to be written” to “strengthen American manufacturing by investing in innovation.”

Solar Power

Obama made the “smart-grid” announcement at Florida Power & Light Co.’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, which will generate enough power for 3,000 homes when it is completed. He highlighted new technologies to transmit electricity from places like Arcadia, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southeast of Tampa, to locations where energy demand is greater.

“Now, for the very first time, a large-scale solar-power plant, the largest of its kind in the entire nation, will deliver electricity produced by the sun to the citizens of the Sunshine State, and I think it’s about time,” Obama said.

The president also touted the use of so-called “smart meters,” devices for 2.6 million customers of Florida Power & Light Co. that will let families measure electric use by the week, month or hour, and vary the use when electricity is the cheapest.

“We’re on the cusp of a new energy future,” he said.

Climate-Change Legislation

Obama also called climate-change legislation “critical” to a clean-energy economy, and said legislation passed by the House and being considered by the Senate will “finally” make such energy profitable. Still, he warned, “the closer we get to this clean-energy future, the harder the opposition’s going to fight.”

Obama traveled to Arcadia after an overnight stop in Miami, where he attended two Democratic fundraising events that brought in a total of $1.5 million. Before his departure from his Miami hotel this morning, several of the dozen or so cars in the president’s motorcade waited for 30 minutes outside the hotel, their engines running.

One of the largest grants announced today is $200 million for Constellation Energy Group Inc.’s Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. to provide new electric meters to 1.1 million households that will allow real-time monitoring of electricity use and help customers adjust their usage during peak times.

Sempra Energy’s San Diego Gas & Electric Co. will receive $28.1 million to build a wireless system to link the utility’s 1.4 million meters and monitor other equipment across the electrical grid.

The 100 government grants in 49 states are being matched by $4.7 billion in private investments.

[mawilson 2,133]

[scandal 951]

Yeah, especially this part

Before his departure from his Miami hotel this morning, several of the dozen or so cars in the president’s motorcade waited for 30 minutes outside the hotel, their engines running.

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

China is building a smart grid. We need to do this too.

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China is making tens of millions of new babies each year. We need to do this too.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

China is building a smart grid. We need to do this too.

As Lenin said way back when: Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country. And the Chinese do it, too.

Wake up people, this is a step closer to communism...

[JimandChristy 1,689]

Next up should be improving and upgrading the transport infrastructure into the 21st Century. Airports, roads and Railways.