Have we run out of big ideas to fix the grid?

About this episode

The episode discusses America's grid problems and the need for better planning and coordination in the context of electrification and data center buildout.

America’s grid problems are often framed as physical constraints: equipment shortages, interconnection backlogs, and a lack of powered land. But are we missing an opportunity to bring bigger ideas to the table as we reindustrialize and electrify the economy? This week, Jane Flegal, a senior fellow at the Searchlight Institute, joins the show to talk about why our biggest constraint is an inability to plan, coordinate, and build at the scale this moment demands. On the left, there’s a growing push to limit demand through data center moratoriums and price controls. On the right, there’s a lot of talk about ratepayer protections and off-grid data centers without much thought to big-picture system planning. We don’t have a system that can align private capital, public priorities, and long-term infrastructure needs. So what would real coordination look like? We’ll talk about Jane’s new proposal seizing the data center buildout to support a grid infrastructure fund. We’ll talk about why the current debate about “utilization vs expansion” misses the point, and what it would take to coordinate a data center buildout for public benefit. Then, we’ll turn specifically to green groups. After…

People in this episode

Hosts: Stephen Lacey, Jigar Shah, Caroline Golin

Guest: Jane Flegal

Topics covered

• grid infrastructure
• data centers
• electrification
• climate policy
• coordination
• public benefit

Keywords

• grid problems
• data center buildout
• electrification
• climate movement
• infrastructure planning
• public benefit
• coordination

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Searchlight Institute, climate movement

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