Electrical Infrastructure Needs $600 Billion

Or faces collapse by 2020. Maybe Obama should have spent stimulus dollars here instead of paying off campaign contributors.

As hundreds of thousands swelter without power a week after a violent storm pummeled the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, energy experts say the future will look even worse if the nation's aging, congested electrical grid isn't upgraded.

Customers chafe at rising utility bills, but the energy industry warns that the alternative is even scarier: Unless $673 billion is invested in the system, it could break down by 2020, according to an American Society of Civil Engineers report released in April.

The grid's dependability has become an increasing concern as the system strains to meet increased demand. Bottlenecks in the grid and equipment failures are causing more brownouts and blackouts, energy experts say.

The civil engineers say that if investment in the system isn't increased by at least $1 billion a year, service interruptions between now and 2020 will cost $197 billion.