By Suzanne Herel

The Obama administration’s first Quadrennial Energy Review presents a roadmap for returning the U.S. to a post-World War II level of investment in infrastructure, creating 1.5 million jobs while transforming the nation’s electric grid and oil and gas pipelines, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday from PECO Energy headquarters in Philadelphia.

“The U.S. is in the midst of an energy transformation that will allow us to remain the energy epicenter of the world,” Biden said. “To maintain that position, we need a 21st-century infrastructure.”

President Obama ordered the review — similar to the Pentagon’s Quadrennial Defense Review, a widely followed assessment of the nation’s defense — to provide a comprehensive “multi-year roadmap” for U.S. energy policy, with an assessment of current policies and recommendations for additional executive and legislative actions, including priorities for research, development and demonstration programs to support innovation. A White House task force, headed by the president’s top science, technology and climate change advisors and including more than 20 federal agencies, took part in the project, which included public meetings with stakeholders around the country. (See Looking to Build Infrastructure, Moniz Comes to Wall Street.)

The effort is intended “to provide policymakers, industry, investors and other stakeholders with unbiased data and analysis on energy challenges, needs, requirements and barriers that will inform a range of policy options, including legislation.” Each installment of the report will focus on one part of the energy “value chain.”

The 348-page report released Tuesday focuses on the energy transmission, storage and distribution system, which is facing new challenges from climate change, environmental policies and innovations in oil and natural gas production.

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New Sources

Since 2008, solar electricity generation has increased 20-fold, Biden said, and wind energy has more than tripled. In that time, the U.S. has become the world’s No. 1 producer of natural gas, and the nation has reduced its dependency on foreign oil.

Meanwhile, new challenges have emerged regarding national security, increasingly strict clean energy standards and an aging transmission system that isn’t geographically aligned with the needs of renewable generation.

“Changes in the geography of domestic energy production stress the ability of existing infrastructures to move both liquid fuels and electricity from supply regions to demand centers,” the White House said in a fact sheet. “Congestion in the nation’s ports, waterways and rail systems affect the timing and cost of moving not just energy products, but all commodities.”

Aging Infrastructure, Need for Resiliency

Biden noted that half of the nation’s 2.6 million miles of gas pipelines were constructed in the 1950s and 60s, and it would cost about $270 billion to repair them all.

The solution, he said, includes permitting new pipelines more quickly and finding ways for companies to recover their investment without burdening ratepayers.

The system also needs to gird for events such as 2012’s Superstorm Sandy, said Biden, citing it as evidence of climate change.

Between 2003 and 2012, an estimated 679 widespread power outages occurred, he said, costing from $18 billion to $33 billion per year, depending on the nature of the event, he said.

“The threat’s real,” he said. “We’re expecting sea levels to rise by 2030.” In some places, he said, “we will need to literally raise the substation.”

The report cites estimates of billions of dollars to achieve its recommendations. Grid modernization alone is expected to run $3.5 billion annually over 10 years.

Workforce Impacts

Biden stressed the positive effect the investments will have on the workforce.

About 1 million people were employed in energy transmission, storage and distribution jobs in 2013 and over the next five years, about 15% of them will be eligible to retire. The administration says infrastructure spending could add 1.5 million additional energy sector jobs.

“These are middle-class jobs,” he said. “These are the jobs that used to exist at the turn of the 20th century.

“Investing in our infrastructure creates of a virtuous cycle of creating good-paying jobs and attracting companies.”

Accompanying the announcement were two related executive actions.

The U.S. Department of Energy has created the Partnership for Energy Sector Climate Resilience, aimed at strengthening the system against extreme weather and climate change impacts. It will kick off with an April 30 meeting with the CEOs of 17 member companies, including Exelon, Dominion Virginia Power, Pepco Holdings Inc., Public Service Electric & Gas, the New York Power Authority, the Tennessee Valley Authority, National Grid and Entergy.

In addition, the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced a plan to spend $72 million to support six new rural electric infrastructure projects.