Photo by Dabe
In a recent speech at the Heritage Foundation, Rep. Roscoe Bartlett told the audience he is not part of some lunatic fringe.
To assure his audience of his lucidity seemed necessary
before the Maryland Republican listed dark predictions of what might
happen if the nation does not prepare for catastrophic electrical
failure from a solar storm or a nuclear bomb.
“It would end life as you know it,” Bartlett said at a panel
assembled to discuss the effect of an electromagnetic pulse, or EMP,
unleashing irreversible destruction on the nation’s electrical grid.
Bartlett said the threat is real enough that
Congress should force utility companies to protect critical transformers
in preparation for an EMP event.
So far, the science fiction community has proved more
interested than Congress in EMP events, devoting space in novels and
movies to a doomsday scenario where electricity is out for years as the
United States struggles to recover.
In the film Ocean’s Eleven, one of the con men detonates a
tightly coiled glowing green bomb in the back of a van, unleashing a
powerful electromagnetic pulse across Las Vegas.
The strip plunges into darkness as electromagnetic waves swiftly destroy the city’s power grid.
Hollywood almost got the science of EMP right.
Experts think it actually would take a nuclear bomb detonated miles high in the sky to render electrical grids useless.
EMPs instantly destroy most anything electrical, similar to
how a direct lightning strike disables appliances plugged into your
home, but EMPS are much more destructive than lightning.
They easily overpower surge protectors, knocking out electrical grids all over the country, potentially even all over the world.
“Just think about your life,” Bartlett said. “If you do not
have electricity, and there will be no electricity for a year, what will
you do? By the way, if it’s an EMP attack, your car is full of
computers. They are probably all fried.”
A destructive electromagnetic pulse can come from an enemy’s bomb or from the sun.
Scientists say the world is overdue for an intense solar
storm, which could also shower the earth with destructive
electromagnetic waves.
The last major solar flare, in 1859, came before the advent of most microelectronics.
The telegraph existed then, and telegraph operators
reportedly were knocked unconscious by the intense energy which was
powerful enough to set some of their machines on fire.
“We know these things happen, they are inevitable, and when
they do happen they will collapse power grids across the entire planet,
not just in one country,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who advised a
congressional commission Bartlett helped create to study the dangers of
electromagnetic pulse.
The The Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States
from Electromagentic Pulse Attack, first assembled in 2004, determined
power companies should take steps to protect the electrical grid.
Russia hardened its grid during the Cold War and China is hardening its grid now.
Basic protection to the nation’s electrical system would be
as simple as putting thick metal boxes around critical transformers to
block harmful rays, Pry said.
“The minimum we should do is protect the 300 major transformers associated with our metropolitan areas,” Pry said.
Bartlett’s proposed legislation would enable the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require utility companies
harden equipment against EMP events.
Companies could then seek approval for rate increases from state regulators,.
That is where the calls for action run into trouble.
The House passed Bartlett’s identical EMP legislation last
Congress, but the Senate voted against it out of concern utility
companies would pass on the cost to consumers when rates are already
high.
The commission faulted Congress for not making EMP research
more of a priority, especially given the potential disruption to the
nation’s food supply if electricity is offline for an extended period.
“I assure you this is very real, that it can happen, and we
need to prepare for it so that when it happens we will not be devastated
by it.” Bartlett said.
hier der link
