With recent political, social, and environmental concerns regarding energy use and consumption, there is a need to address sustainable solution for the production of fuels and petrochemical intermediates. While there are many efforts in biological or biochemical fuels production, there are also ways to convert electrical energy to hydrocarbon and petrochemical intermediates that compliment an assortment of electrical energy storage and conversion pathways. An electrical replacement for hydrocarbons must have all of the desirable qualities of hydrocarbons without the environmental and energy security consequences. These qualities should include accessibility, low energy investment, reasonable energy density, portability, chemical versatility, and combustibility. To that end, a background on energy requirements for electrochemical pathways to petrochemical intermediates will be provided, followed by an analysis of the electrical infrastructure required to support large scale adoption. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.