Affordable, clean, and secure energy and energy services are essential for improving U.S. economic productivity, enhancing quality of life, protecting the environment, and ensuring national security. To help the federal government meet these energy goals, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum on January 9, 2014, directing the administration to conduct a Quadrennial Energy Review (QER). The focus of the first QER was to examine the nation's energy infrastructure and identify vulnerabilities and risks as well as opportunities. The purpose was to enable the federal government to translate policy goals into a set of integrated actions aimed at modernizing our existing infrastructure to promote economic competitiveness, energy and climate security, and environmental responsibility.

From April through August 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), acting as the Secretariat for the QER Task Force, held 11 public QER meetings across the country— including one in Santa Fe, New Mexico, focused on State, Local, and Tribal issues—to discuss issues and receive input on energy transmission, storage, and distribution (TS&D) infrastructure.  At each meeting, expert panelists spoke on specific energy infrastructure issues and the floor was opened for public comments. Comments were also collected via email through October 2014. The resulting 348-page report, issued in April 2015, makes recommendations pertaining to eight national energy objectives, including  increasing the resilience, reliability, safety, and security of TS&D infrastructure; modernizing the electric grid; addressing environmental aspects of TS&D infrastructure; enhancing employment and workforce training; and siting and permitting of TS&D infrastructure.