Heinz Experts Eye Future of U.S. Energy Infrastructure

Carnegie Mellon University - This year, a series of devastating events highlighted the growing gaps and weaknesses in the American energy infrastructure. In February, a historic cold snap exposed vulnerabilities in Texas' power grid, leaving 4.5 million homes and businesses without power and resulting in the deaths of at least 151 people. In May, a cybersecurity attack on a major pipeline dealt a startling blow to the East Coast's fuel supply that rippled out to the transportation and airline industries. In its 2021 Infrastructure Report Card , the American Society of Civil Engineers found that the investment gap in the American energy infrastructure is expected to grow to a cumulative $197 billion by 2029. As hackers pose increasingly sophisticated threats to critical infrastructure and the impacts of climate change continue to accelerate the frequency and intensity of weather events, the American energy infrastructure is in need of a serious overhaul to both increase resiliency and facilitate the transition to cleaner energy resources. At the end of March, the Biden Administration introduced the American Jobs Plan , a proposed approach to revitalizing the American economy through investing in rebuilding the infrastructure. The $2 trillion plan allocated significant investment to the energy sector including the development of a renewed electrical grid, the creation of a Clean Energy and Sustainability Accelerator, and the allocation of $46 billion to support clean energy manufacturing.