Study Highlights Lost Opportunities for Companies to Invest

WASHINGTON, DC ? The opportunity to spend billions improving the nation?s? electrical transmission infrastructure, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs and infusing millions into local and regional economies, was highlighted today by a report from the American Society of Civil Engineers, Failure to Act: The Impact of Current Infrastructure Investment on America?s Future.?

The report stated electric transmission is a key area in which the nation is falling short of critical infrastructure investment needs. The total impact on the economy of the ?investment gap? in several key infrastructure areas, says ASCE, will be job losses of 3.5 million by 2020 ? with a projected cumulative loss of $3.1 trillion in economic output over the same period if an additional $1.1 trillion is not devoted to infrastructure projects.

?The ASCE report is a solid contribution to our understanding of what the nation needs and how important it is for policy makers to help,? said Jim Hoecker of Husch Blackwell LLP and Counsel to WIRES. ?The money ? largely from private capital markets ? is here, willing and waiting to be spent if the business and regulatory risks can be mitigated.

?Transmission equipment manufacturing and construction alone could create as many 200,000 good jobs annually if projected demand for wires and substations is met,? Hoecker added.? That?s a boon to local and state economies at a time when cities and counties are looking for revenues to meet basic needs.?

?Infrastructure is the most important thing you never think about,? said Don Clevenger of Oncor, the new WIRES President. ?ASCE has called attention to the possible economic after-effects of failing to make sufficient investments in a part of the economy that few policy makers think about.? Investing in strategic assets like the electric grid is critical to deployment of smart technologies, higher levels of reliability, our ability to access domestic clean energy resources, and strong economic growth.?

??The ASCE report may understate the investments the industry is currently making in transmission but it also understates the long-term need to essentially replace the electric system with one that is more intelligent, extensive, efficient, and that fulfills the public policy interest of state and federal governments in clean energy resources and energy independence,? said Hoecker.? ?The competition for capital, resistance to funding these long-term assets, protracted and uncoordinated permitting processes, and lack of a national infrastructure policy make developing these facilities a difficult undertaking.?

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Source: http://coloradoenergynews.com/2013/01/study-highlights-lost-opportunities-companies-invest-transmission-other-infrastructure/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=study-highlights-lost-opportunities-companies-invest-transmission-other-infrastructure

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