Puerto Rico blackouts have a warning for LI and NY

The potential fate of America's electric future can be found on Puerto Rico, where a sustained indifference to improvements, maintenance and innovation brought not one but two widescale blackouts within months — the second covering the whole island.

Some might dismiss the island's struggles as irrelevant to the mainland's far more extensive energy grid, suggesting it was an anomaly on an island in constant need of long-ignored infrastructure investment. But that would be shortsighted. Ignoring these warnings is like shrugging off an incoming Category 5 hurricane. We cannot afford that kind of denial. If we don't act now, the crisis ahead only becomes more difficult and costly to fix.

As we consume more power, analysts predict that in five years our nation will increase its electricity demands by 25%. But if the infrastructure isn't there to deliver it, we will need to rethink our 21st century electric society. Nor is this a debate about wind versus fossil fuels or nuclear. This is about getting power generated from any source — though hopefully cleaner ones — to where it's needed, when it's needed. It’s about building expanded transmission lines to support a grid that has not been updated in decades.

America once led the world in building — from the Brooklyn Bridge to the interstate highway system. Over time, though, we've become paralyzed by red tape, regulatory dysfunction, NIMBYism and an unfortunate national amnesia about what it takes to construct the infrastructure that powers prosperity. Other countries growing faster are thinking future forward.

Yet, there is a suggestion of progress. At the federal level, there is a renewed focus on energy security and infrastructure investment, with efforts aimed at streamlining permitting, bolstering reliability and strengthening national competitiveness. That direction is being heard from Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

Earlier this year he said, "America is a country where we do things, we build big things, we change things. And we've gotten to a place today in America where it's very hard to build something. It's very easy to stop something."

He also said, "Energy is not political. It's the basic infrastructure that allows us to live great lives, to allow whatever our dream is, whatever our vision is."

One might take issue with the secretary on whether energy is political. China, which is challenging America on the world stage, knows the power of power. They fully appreciate that a robust electrical infrastructure creates the foundation for strategic growth.

There are projects in the United States that remind us American progress is possible. Propel NY Energy is a multiyear, multivalue initiative that will create a far stronger electric transmission network serving millions of people across parts of Long Island, Queens, the Bronx and Westchester County. The project's community meetings, briefings and online and in-person outreach have generated support and endorsements in recognition that the only two existing transmission lines bringing power to the region are aging and potentially vulnerable. The cost to the consumer will be minimal, an average increase of 6 cents a day to their daily electric bill. That far outweighs the cost of inaction and band aid fixes.

Still, far more needs to be done if New York and the country are to maintain its energy leadership. Formed by President Donald Trump the month after he returned to office, the National Energy Dominance Council is a presidential advisory group whose mandate includes reducing regulations, improving permitting and encouraging energy innovation.

NEDC is capable of creating a road map for the United States to pursue a future that not only offers ample generation of electricity, but the means of getting it to the tech that runs our economy and lives. But the political will of individual states and metro regions — like Long Island and New York City — will be required to recognize the challenge, the solution and the consequences if we fail to keep the lights on.

This guest essay reflects the views of John Duffy, business manager and treasurer of Local 138 of the International Union of Operating Engineers in Farmingdale.