With crisis comes opportunity. When things break down, it's
a chance to rethink and rebuild anew. The financial crisis in America spread around the world and has become a global economic crisis. It's never been
more clear that we are all interconnected, requiring our leaders to work
together, thinking and acting globally. The global energy crisis requires the same
international attention, and linking clean electricity between all nations offers
the core solution.
In the United States, there's a growing drive for a National
Transmission Grid that enables remote renewable energy to power our cities and
industry. The US has substantial wind in the plains states and huge solar
resources in the southwestern desert - yet most people live near the East or
West coasts. In answering a question last week about economic stimulus and
infrastructure, President-elect Barak Obama replied, "One of, I think,
the most important infrastructure projects that we need is a whole new
electricity grid. Because if we're going to be serious about renewable energy,
I want to be able to get wind power from North Dakota to population centers,
like Chicago. And we're going to have to have a smart grid if we want to use
plug-in hybrids then we want to be able to have ordinary consumers sell back
the electricity that's generated from those car batteries, back into the grid.
That can create 5 million new jobs, just in new energy."
Thinking beyond national borders, the Persian Gulf Arab states
are moving forward on their six nation regional power grid. Interconnected grids
can supply economic power exchange, defer new generation capacity, provide back-up
emergency power and voltage stability. These mutual benefits of electric
interconnections are applicable to neighboring countries on every continent!
You can see that while the GENI Initiative has
gained traction, many actual grid links are still years from completion. We
can't let up, as there are many obstacles that remain. We ask your help in
accelerating this progress throughout every nation. Please consider a year-end
pledge, which you can do on-line: http://www.geni.org/globalenergy/donors/enroll/pledge.shtml It will make a big difference to our promise.
Happy New Year,
