Obama Admin Announces $3.4 Billion for Smart Grid

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Barack Obama on Tuesday announced $3.4 billion in funding for smart grid technology, the largest investment in energy grid modernization in history.

“There’s something big happening in America in terms of creating a clean-energy economy,” Obama said, adding that there is much more to be done.

The funds will be used to deploy “smart meters,” a digital technology that delivers information on energy usage to both customers and to utilities. For homeowners, this would be a display in the house that gives a readout on electricity use, which is in turn connected to the electricity providers so they can better coordinate their energy delivery.

The investment was announced during Obama’s visit to Florida Power and Light’s DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy Center in Arcadia, Florida. FPL received a $200 million grant, which will be used to install 2.6 million smart meters and other technologies designed to cut energy costs for customers. This kind of investment will help build a “smarter, stronger and more secure electric grid,” Obama said.

Grants were awarded to 100 different companies as part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, for projects in every state except Alaska. They’re matched with $4.7 billion industry funding, so the total investment is worth more than $8 billion. The White House also released a map of the locations for the smart grid projects.

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate