Eh, it’s a start

Arkansas will receive more than $10 million from the federal government to improve the structure of its power grid. That’s million with an M.

The state Department of Finance & Administration announced on Wednesday the state will receive $10 million as part of the $13 billion in new financing opportunities for the “expansion and modernization” of the nation’s electric grid included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

It all comes through the U.S. Department of Energy, and is intended to protect us from power outages due to wildfires, extreme weather and other natural disasters.

So far this year, approximately 260,000 Arkansans have gone without power for at least one hour because of extreme weather. While some of the 260,000 were the same Arkansans on different days, that number still represents slightly less than 10 percent of the state’s population.

“This year’s historic natural disasters underscored the critical importance of our electric grid,” said Gov. Sarah Sanders. “We need the grid to run to keep our entire state moving. This investment will enhance our grid’s resiliency to help in future crisis events.”

As with many federal programs, allocation of the funds follows a formula that guarantees a minimum amount to all states. Clearly, if Arkansas’ three million residents account for a little less than 1 percent of the country’s 330 million people, and we get $10 million of the $13 billion available nationwide, we got the minimum.

At the risk of being accused of looking a gift horse in the mouth, we’d point out that $10 million is not a lot of money when it comes to this kind of thing.

But it’s a start.