President Biden: Please Listen to Civil Society Proposals for Electric Grid Transformation | Opinion

President Biden: Please Listen to Civil Society Proposals for Electric Grid Transformation | Opinion

The news about how Hurricane Ida ripped through the Gulf Coast is heart wrenching. The United Houma Nation was directly hit, and many other communities in Louisiana and Mississippi were also impacted by Hurricane Ida. But those of us who have lived through devastating hurricanes know that the passage of a category 4 or 5 storm is just the beginning of the crisis.

The aftermath of a hurricane often involves widespread and extended power outages and the inability to access essential services. Hurricane Ida caused a massive power outage that impacted all of New Orleans and other communities by knocking out poles, towers, wires, and transformers—what's known as the Transmission and Distribution (T&D) system. And it had a devastating impact on an already suffering community; living without electric power means not being able to power life-sustaining medical devices like nebulizers. It means not having access to medication that requires refrigeration, and a potential shortage of potable water and water sewage systems that require electric power to operate. It means you can't store perishable foods, and have no access to banking and many other basic services that most people take for granted.