Markey: National Broadband Plan Can Have Positive Implications on Global Warming

Rep Ed Markey (D-MA) -- former chair of the House Telecommunications Subcommittee and current chair of a special committee on energy and global warming -- is responsible for charging the Federal Communications Commission with writing a National Broadband Plan. On Monday at the FCC's field hearing on broadband, energy consumption and the environment, Rep Markey said he thought that if the FCC gets the plan right, the greenhouse gas problem could be solved by 2050. Among the takeaways from the hearing was that the government would need to find ways to incentivize broadband networks and utilities to work together in ways they had not before, and for both to collaborate with government and academia to get the job done. The job is to match the near ubiquitous deployment of electricity with broadband so that a national smart grid can become a reality, and with enough bandwidth to handle as-yet-undeveloped applications.