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In the 1950s, President Dwight D. Eisenhower faced a challenge that should feel familiar today. The American economy was growing quickly, but the nation’s infrastructure had not kept pace. Major roads were disconnected, inconsistent, and poorly suited for a modern national economy. An infrastructure problem that threatened to slow the nation’s economic momentum.
Rather than treat highways as isolated local projects, Eisenhower supported a more ambitious idea: the Interstate Highway System. A national backbone for commerce, security, and mobility. Through the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, the federal government would help establish the framework and financing, while states would plan, build, and operate the roads.
The idea faced skepticism. Communities worried about disruption. States questioned federal involvement. But Eisenhower’s vision won the day because policy makers recognized a fundamental truth that backbone infrastructure delivers benefits that transcend individual projects.
What began as a controversial idea ultimately became one of the most successful infrastructure investments in American history. The interstate system enabled regional growth, strengthened national defense, and lowered transportation costs for all Americans.
Today, our nation faces a similar challenge with the electric grid.
Electricity demand is rising precipitously, after decades of relatively flat growth. Electrification, domestic manufacturing, and the rapid expansion of large data centers are reshaping load forecasts across the country. The increasing use and integration of AI will only accelerate that trend. Even according to conservative estimates, training and operating advanced AI systems will require multi-fold increases in computing capacity, which demands reliable and affordable electricity.
While the economy is changing quickly, our approach to transmission planning has not always kept up. Much of the transmission system we rely on today was designed for a different era. When local generation served local demand. Today’s grid must move enormous amounts of power across regions, integrate diverse resources, and maintain reliability under more complex conditions than ever.
Meeting the growing demand for energy will require long distance, high voltage transmission capable of linking regions and strengthening all sectors of the grid.
But too often, grid investments are still evaluated in isolation. Individual projects are asked to demonstrate benefits within narrow geographic boundaries, even though their real value should lie in their ability to strengthen the broader network. Backbone infrastructure cannot be judged one project at a time. Its value emerges from the system it creates.
This is where cooperative federalism comes into play. Transmission planning works best when federal regulators, state commissions, regional grid operators, and utilities work together toward a shared vision of a grid that enables a fast-paced AI economy.
The good news is that momentum is building toward a more forward-looking approach to transmission planning. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) deserves real credit for helping to move the conversation forward on long-term and regional planning. With FERC requiring planners to look out twenty years and think about the grid of the future, not just the problems in front of us today.
Looking at transmission through this broader lens also helps address one of the most pressing debates in energy policy today: affordability.
It is no secret that transmission investment is sometimes portrayed as a driver of rising costs. But strategic transmission expansion can have the opposite effect. A stronger backbone grid unlocks cheaper power, reduces congestion, and avoids expensive local reliability fixes. And, over time, that can lower overall energy costs while improving reliability.
But the broader context of this conversation also matters. The global race to lead in artificial intelligence is intensifying. Electricity infrastructure will play a decisive role in determining who wins that race. The countries that can deliver abundant and affordable electricity will attract the industries that will define the next era of economic growth. That includes hyperscalers and data centers, which require enormous amounts of reliable power.
While AI may be built on complex algorithms and advanced computing power, it ultimately runs on electricity. In that sense, electric transmission infrastructure is not just an energy issue. It is an economic and, increasingly, a national security issue.
Failure is not an option.
Achieving that vision will require cooperation across federal and state regulators, regional grid operators, utilities, and the communities where transmission lines are built. But history shows us that when the United States treats critical infrastructure as a national priority and works to build it together, the payoff can shape and improve the economy for generations.
The next chapter of American prosperity may depend on whether we are willing to think about the grid the same way Eisenhower thought about highways. Not as isolated projects, but as the backbone of a national system.
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