Building bridges
Toolbox
Published: October 29, 2009
Viewed narrowly, the stimulus grant for the upgrading of Vermont's electrical utilities is a step toward greater efficiency and energy conservation. Viewed more broadly, it is part of the slow revival of America.
Vermont will receive $69 million as part of $3.4 billion awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy to enable the state's 20 utilities to pursue Smart Grid technology. Smart Grid uses fiber optics and digital meters to create a real-time link between users of electricity and the power system. Thus, a homeowner could see that at 5 p.m. power has become costly and could delay turning on the clothes washer and dryer until 8 p.m. In the same way, a factory owner could save on power costs by managing his factory's electrical usage more efficiently.
Vermont's utilities are ready to invest millions in the project, boosted by the investment of federal stimulus money. Vermont's project is the only unified statewide project among those winning approval. Thus, the state can serve as a laboratory for technological innovations that could transform the nation's electric power industry.
Vermont's grant is a tribute both to the state's forward-thinking utilities and the aggressive efforts of the state's economic recovery office, until recently led by Tom Evslin. Evslin had to prepare a complex application to win the multimillion-dollar federal grant.
But the Smart Grid grant represents something more than smart meters and fiber optics.
One of the telling emblems of our times may be the Champlain Bridge, the deteriorating span that connects Chimney Point in Addison with Crown Point, N.Y. The bridge is now closed because of the crumbling of concrete beneath the surface of the water, and motorists are now faced with long lines for ferry boats or 100-mile detours.
Eighty years ago construction of the bridge was celebrated as a great achievement. Now we are gaining the sense that our nation is falling apart. Residents from both sides of the lake are irate that New York state, which has responsibility for maintenance of the bridge, had allowed it to deteriorate so badly.
The Obama administration's stimulus program, which was created under the auspices of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, was meant to speed the recovery of the economy from the economic collapse that began last year. But it was also a down payment on a broadly based reinvestment in America.
The nation can watch passively as its bridges collapse and its electrical power system falls into a state of decrepitude. Or it can take steps to build the future. The stimulus program was a first step toward the kind of investment in America that will enable the economy to grow again and help society to prosper.
Nothing could be more obvious than a bridge. It connects communities and fosters commerce. Where bridges collapse, we grow more isolated and poor.
Bridges can take many forms, whether they are actual bridges of concrete and steel or the bridge of technology that connects power users and power companies. They are advances in telecommunications that bring connectivity to rural regions. They are bridges to the next generation through the investment in schools and teachers.
For a variety of reasons we have turned away from these investments in recent decades. An aversion to taxes, a conservative retrenchment, an alienation from government — these have all played roles. And yet the challenges are before us with regard to physical infrastructure, new technology and climate change and investments in human health and education. We have begun to address these challenges in a time of economic distress, but the present economic climate has made us more acutely aware than before of the need to shake ourselves from our past passivity and to take action.
Vermont's utilities now have the resources to bring advanced technology to the aging infrastructure of our electrical system. There are many more bridges to build.
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