BLACKOUT... THEN WORLD WAR III
this summer, on every show, in every paper... But it wasn’t. Bottom line : If China has this capability, then we have reason to be extremely cautious and extremely worried. This kind of attack could shut down our country, leaving us in a state of paralysis... and ultimately, whatever is left of our country, would be left hostage to China. If China has this capability, then we have reason to be extremely cautious and extremely worried. This kind of attack could shut down our country, leaving us in a state of paralysis... and ultimately, whatever is left of our country, would be left hostage to China. Chang partly blames the power companies, saying, “they’ve fought all sorts of attempts that require them to harden grids.” While true, that’s in part because these utilities are run as monopolies with controlled rates that are set by the government. As such, there’s little profit incentive for them to improve their infrastructure. At this point, ensuring the safety of our grid should really be placed in the hands of the Department of Defense. Forget private companies... It’s now a matter of national security. This isn’t the first time our government has been warned.
In 2008, the EMP Commission set up by Congress said a largely digitized U.S. could be left black for up to a year as a result of an EMP disruption. And yet, apparently little was done to address the potential crisis. Eight years later, in 2016, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (“GAO”) reported that the federal government failed to implement a series of recommendations that had been made to prevent massive outages triggered by an EMP incursion. Isn’t that always the way? Our government bureaucracy at work... The GAO noted that the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) and the Department of Energy (“DOE”) had not “established a coordinated approach to identifying and implementing key risk management activities to address EMP risks” and that the securing of the grid was far from the top priority. How is this not a top priority if 90% of America’s population could be wiped out within a year? CAN WE PROTECT OURSELVES? We haven’t had the best track record preparing for disasters... Nonetheless, I certainly hope we can find a way to protect ourselves. We should be working overtime to upgrade our power grid and detection equipment to make sure no country catches us by surprise.
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September 2020
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