In today’s New York Times , Al Gore lays out a five point plan for addressing climate change.

His ambitious plan, he says, will enable Americans to produce “100 percent of our electricity from carbon-free sources in 10 years.” The second of Gore’s five points calls for “the planning and construction of a unified national smart grid for the transport of renewable electricity from the rural places where it is mostly generated to the cities where it is mostly used” — something that is simply not possible with our “balkanized and antiquated electricity lines”.

The whole editorial deserves a careful read. It highlights, again, the urgency of changing the national conversation about energy.