President Biden Supports Bipartisan Infrastructure Plan Including $73 Billion in Power Grid Investment

U.S President Joe Biden on June 26 announced an agreement with a bipartisan group of senators on a $1.2 trillion infrastructure framework including $73 billion for power infrastructure. Among the key initiatives, the plan would create a new Grid Development Authority at the Department of Energy, deploy long distance, high voltage transmission, integrate the highest value clean energy resources, and support research and development for advanced technologies that deliver flexibility and resilience. The proposal also provides for winterizing the power-grid, expanding the electric vehicle fleet, and electrifying school and transit buses.

The plan would make the single largest investment in clean transmission in the U.S., according to a June 29 fact sheet released by the White House. The proposed energy-related investments include:

• $48.5 billion to revamp transit by replacing transit vehicles, including buses, with clean, zero emissions vehicles; providing for more than 35,000 electric school buses nationally.
• $52 billion in investments to build community resilience to disasters including winterizing the power grid.
• $22 billion in demonstration projects and research hubs for next-gen technologies, including nuclear reactors, carbon capture for industrial plants, and green hydrogen.

The plan focuses on providing investments for research and development for smart grid, electric distribution, and advanced transmission technologies. The proposed grid authority would implement a national, clean energy grid and support actions that reduce the impacts to the power grid from extreme weather events. Power infrastructure upgrades proposed by the plan include thousands of miles of new, resilient transmission lines to support the growth of renewable energy. The plan proposes to build a national network of electric vehicle chargers along highways, rural communities, accomplishing President Biden’s goal of building and implementing 500,000 chargers.

The measure represents the largest infrastructure investment for energy since the 1936 Rural Electrification Act, under which the U.S government implemented electricity to almost every home in America.

The original proposal, Biden’s $2 trillion American Jobs Plan, had a clean energy tax incentive, and proposed an energy efficiency and clean energy standard requiring a percentage of electricity to come from zero-emission sources.