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New Transmission Lines Will Help Create Jobs

A key piece of our economic development infrastructure has to be a robust electricity transmission grid.

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With unemployment at 8.6 percent and our economy still struggling to gain momentum after the Great Recession, it’s clear that we need to do everything we can to provide more opportunities for Americans to find work. Immediate job creation is critical, but we also need to focus on creating an environment that’s conducive to long-term, sustainable economic growth. Central to this is building the power infrastructure that will enable growth, ultimately making our economy healthier.

A key piece of this economic development infrastructure has to be a robust electricity transmission grid. Unfortunately, many people don’t realize the economic benefits of building out a 21st century transmission grid, instead picturing wires and towers that carry electricity from one place to another without much economic activity associated with them. But this view misses why we need a more effective and efficient transmission grid—far from just delivering electricity, a robust transmission grid makes our country’s economy stronger.

A new issue brief from CAP describes four ways that new transmission lines lead to economic growth:

  • Delivering new energy sources to our homes and businesses
  • Reducing costly power outages
  • Lowering power prices
  • Putting tens of thousands to work directly, and hundreds of thousands of to work across our economy

Certainly this is not an exhaustive list, but it does demonstrate the job-creation power of investing in new transmission lines alongside the billions of dollars that consumers and businesses will save as a result.

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