Grid power reliability: Do we take it for granted?
Reliable electricity is one aspect of our daily lives that we sometimes take for granted.聽 And, when something happens that points out just how necessary it really is, we never seem to fully appreciate the role it plays in our daily lives.
Whether it鈥檚 a聽聽during the Super Bowl, or聽听颈苍 India, reliable electricity is something most of the world can鈥檛 live without.
In fact, just last week Senate Energy and Natural Resource ranking member Lisa Murkowski told reporters after she spoke at the NARUC winter meeting:
鈥淯nfortunately for us, most of us take energy for granted. It鈥檚 just always there. You鈥檝e heard me say it before: We鈥檝e got this immaculate conception theory of energy. It just happens, the lights turn on, it鈥檚 the temperature we want, until it鈥檚 not,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think [the blackout] helps to perhaps kick-start the debate.聽 You hate to think that something bad happens in order to get people鈥檚 attention, but I think people鈥檚 attention was focused last night.鈥�
That鈥檚 why affordable, stable聽聽is essential to this country. We need this natural resource鈥攖here is more than two centuries of coal in the US鈥攖o keep the doors open at small businesses, power our hospitals and keep assembly lines running at manufacturing plants across the country.
Coal-based electricity is one of the least expensive, most reliable means of producing electricity, and it鈥檚 a central part of the American energy portfolio. Not only that, coal has a long history of providing energy to Americans.
America has depended on the reliable and abundant coal that comes from our land and powers our lives for more than a century. With the energy in America鈥檚 coal reserves being roughly equal to the world鈥檚 known oil reserves, it鈥檚 clear that coal should continue to be a reliable source of electricity for all of us.
