Dannon's Journal: The Outage and Terrorism

We're going to hear a lot of politicians talk about "making sure a terrorist can't duplicate this accident sometime in the future." We've already heard it.

As I think about it, though, I can't say I've seen a whole lot that would make a terrorist's day. If anything, anyone with a goal of mass chaos, confusion, and anguish would've been downright disappointed. Those folks up there handled the situation rather well, all told. Not a terrorist's dream.

Now, I'm all for beefing up the power grid. In about 20 years, we've gone from an overload tolerance of about 15% to one of only about 1%. But fixing that would take more powerlines, which no one wants in their backyard, and possibly more nuclear plants, which tend to send enviro-wackos into conniptions.

The thing is, this is a situation which can only be fixed properly by the private sector. We need more construction and more engineering, not more regulation. Private-sector solutions don't get votes for politicians, though, so look forward to our folks in D.C. doing everything in their power to steal this ball into their court. Even the "threat of terrorism" card.

Spot on.

[Red Warrior]

Had this actually been a terrorist plot, I can just hear them doing thier Butters/Capt. Chaos impersonation about now.

And it's amazing how people underestimate the sheer power of capitalism "hey, I bet we can make money filling this need..."

Solution

[Cyberdyne]

The power lines are a tough issue - obviously, they have to run into the middle of the city! The stations, OTOH, can be placed out in the countryside. Just being a couple of miles beyond the edge of the city should be enough to avoid most complaints - and the recent blackouts should be enough to defeat any opponents. ("Either we build this thing, or we all stock up on candles...")

The best thing that could happen, IMHO, is building a load of new nuclear plants. Move as much of the load as possible onto the

NIMBY

[ces]

The best enviro-whacko move is opposing wind turbines becase they're "ugly" and "kill birds". The no polution bit doesn't seem to register.

The NIMBYs are trying to get any power plant or transmission line near anything or anyone shut down as well.

What do these people think they are going to run their A/C, and lights on? Good vibes?

I'm also reminded of the firestorms that seem to surround any new natural gas fired plants even fairly small ones like Gulliani wanted to build inside NYC. The claim is they w