SPECIAL | Can our electrical grids survive another hot summer?
The Excerpt
USA TODAY
4.1 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 29 May 2024
⏱️ 13 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
As another very hot summer approaches, a surge in demand for air conditioning is inevitable. But the nation’s electrical grid is aging and overtaxed in some areas. There were major failures last year in Texas. Meanwhile, solar and wind projects want access to new customers while oil and gas interests would prefer that this not happen so fast. The established utilities want to keep their monopolies after all. How can regulators, businesses and government leaders navigate this minefield successfully to benefit the American people? Ari Peskoe, the director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard Law School’s Environment and Energy Law Program, has some ideas for what could help reinforce the country's electrical infrastructure.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Wunderry Plus subscribers can listen to USA Today's The Excerpt, ad free right now. |
| 0:05.0 | Join Wunderry Plus in the Wundery app. |
| 0:08.0 | Hello and welcome to the Excerpt. I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Wednesday, May 29th, 2024 and this is a special episode of |
| 0:18.9 | the excerpt. |
| 0:21.9 | As we head into what promises to be yet another very hot summer, we anticipate a surge in demand for air conditioning, |
| 0:31.0 | but the nation's electrical grid is aging and overtaxed in some areas. |
| 0:36.4 | There were major failures last year in Texas. |
| 0:39.4 | Meanwhile, solar and wind projects want access to new customers while oil and gas interests |
| 0:45.2 | prefer that this not happen so fast. The established utilities want to keep their |
| 0:50.9 | monopolies after all. |
| 0:52.6 | How can regulators, businesses, and government leaders |
| 0:55.7 | navigate this minefield successfully |
| 0:58.2 | to benefit the American people? |
| 1:00.4 | I'm now joined by Ari Pesco, |
| 1:02.2 | the director of the Electricity Law Initiative at Harvard |
| 1:05.6 | Law School's Environment and Energy Law Program. |
| 1:09.4 | Thank you for joining the excerpt, Dari. |
| 1:10.9 | Thanks so much for having me today. Let's start with the elephant in the room. |
| 1:14.0 | Are we at the point where we can call our electrical grid issues a crisis? |
| 1:19.0 | Give us a 30,000 foot view here. |
| 1:21.0 | Well, I don't think this is something that folks need to worry too much about. |
| 1:24.5 | This is something that industry and policy makers really need to get on top of. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from USA TODAY, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of USA TODAY and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.