The Economic Recovery Act allocated $11 billion for smart grid technology, which will modernize and enhance the nation’s electricity grid. Obama’s budget proposal, along with both the House and Senate budget resolutions, have addressed the need to build on these initiatives in the Economic Recovery package, by investing in clean energy and the modernization of our electricity infrastructure for improved efficiency and reliability.

This is good news, and it looks like the city of Boulder, Colorado has already begun investing in smart grid technology.

A clean-energy smart grid can not only improve our energy efficiency and reliability, but it can build our capacity to transmit renewable energy across the country. Not to mention, by rebuilding our energy infrastructure, we will create green jobs for Americans.

We need to spark a national movement in support of a clean-energy smart grid and generate the political will to make sure this investment happens!

Check out what I Am Progress is doing to build this movement at Get Wired for Progress:

Building a clean-energy smart grid is a critical first step in the transition to a green energy economy. Together, we can create a national conversation and generate the political energy needed to make it happen. We’ll provide tools, talking points, and policy recommendations, so you can join conversations and start your own.

What is a Clean-Energy Smart Grid?

• A reliable, high-capacity interstate transmission system capable of delivering renewable energy from remote areas to the places where people live, and

• An IT-enabled “smart” distribution system that will allow us to better manage our energy use, both system wide and in our own homes.

Why do we need one?

Our country is facing economic and energy crises. The solution to both is an aggressive transition toward a clean energy economy. Investing in a Clean-Energy Smart Grid is a crucial first step in that process.

Building a modern interstate energy transmission system will strengthen our national security, create quality jobs, and provide the backbone for broad economic growth, just like building the Interstate Highway System did in the 1950s and 1960s.

The current energy transmission system is an antiquated patchwork of local systems, prone to breakdown and vulnerable to attack. Disruptions to the grid cost our economy $100 billion a year (need source) in damages and lost business. It was built in a pre-digital age to serve a very different set of goals.

Now, we need to fight climate change, become a global leader in the clean energy industry, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. To do this, we need a reliable, secure interstate energy infrastructure. These are national challenges that require a national solution.

Learn more from our partner organization, the Center for American Progress

• Read the report, Wired for Progress, by Bracken Hendricks
• Download the executive summary (pdf)
• Background: Energy Grid 101
• Watch the Video: Ask the Expert: Building a National Clean-Energy Smart Grid