Maybe so. From the National Journal:
If there's a silver lining to be found to the partial blackout, it's this: the way the stadium's electrical system worked, at least according to an early official statement, shows how improvements to energy infrastructure can contain damage.
“Power outages cost our country over $70 billion a year,” said Richard Caperton, an energy expert at the Center for American Progress. “Anything that draws attention to that problem and helps motivate people to deal with it is helpful.”
. . . The game, which drew an average of 108.4 million viewers, was another in a series of high-profile power outages during the last year. During Hurricane Sandy in late October, thousands up and down the Eastern Seaboard (and beyond) lost power for periods stretching from days to weeks. Lawmakers in Washington, D.C., found themselves hamstrung during this summer’s fast-moving “derecho” storm, which knocked out power throughout the Washington region.
The American Society of Civil Engineers gave the country’s energy infrastructure a D+ in an infrastructure report card released in 2009. The U.S. “quality of electricity supply” is ranked 33rd globally by the World Economic Forum’s 2012-2013 Global Competitiveness Report. Proponents say improvements to the nation’s infrastructure will create jobs.
Last year, President Obama called for repairing the nation’s infrastructure in his State of the Union address. “Building this new energy future should be just one part of a broader agenda to repair America’s infrastructure. So much of America needs to be rebuilt,” he said. The president’s next State of the Union address, set for Feb. 12, will set the agenda for the next four years. Obama's a big football fan; perhaps the Super Bowl outage will spur him to take renewed action on infrastructure.
