President Obama and the energy grid.

The Obama administration is giving a jolt to the futuristic “smart” electric grid, hoping to more quickly bring America’s power transmission system into the digital age.

President Barack Obama, during a visit to a solar energy facility in Arcadia, Fla., is announcing Tuesday that he is making available $3.4 billion in government support for 100 projects aimed at modernizing the power grid. The projects include installing “smart” electric meters in homes, automating utility substations, and installing thousands of new digital transformers and grid sensors.

White House officials provided details of the initiative prior to the president’s scheduled visit to Florida Power & Light Co.’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center, the largest photovoltaic electricity facility in the country.

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This is a good idea, it puts power literally in the consumers hands. Yes it costs money, but this is a necessary spending cause. If our country followed the energy sources that other countries use, we’d be better off. I was watching a show once, it was on public television and it showed how one country was utilizing it’s transit system and showed how advanced in technology they were compared to America. This country is stuck in a time warp, mainly because so many of its residents are critics of any kind of change. The streets in this country were immaculate. Their public transportation system was pristine. I noticed their recycling methods. Every apartment “complex” as we’d call them had it’s own recycling center that lead through a tunnel which lead to a channel which held workers who sorted and sifted through the rubbish in order to conserve. It was unlike anything I had ever seen. I actually became jealous. Why don’t we have that here?Their subway system was appealing to anyone. Not like the crime ridden New York subway system with its many flaws. We need innovative ideas concerning energy consumption.

Why is America still stuck in the 18th century? I notice outside of most residents of Florida houses, they have recycling bins. You order them from your utility company and they bring them out to you, and place them on your lawn. You fill them up and they come around and collect them once a week. So outdated that method is.