FWD (IUFO) The latest bogus fossil-nuke blackout: This grid should not exist

From: Terry W. Colvin (fortean1@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Aug 17 2003 - 11:15:40 MDT

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    THE LATEST BOGUS FOSSIL-NUKE BLACKOUT: THIS GRID SHOULD NOT EXIST

    By Harvey Wasserman

    < http://www.freepress.org >

    This is the fourth---and worst---completely unnecessary major blackout of the
    Northeast in forty years, dating back to 1965.

    It's scope---from Detroit to Ottawa to New York and New Jersey---is absolutely
    awesome, especially since it's due to total stupidity and corruption.

    This does not count the blackouts that raged through California in 2000-2001.
    Those were "blackmails," set by Enron and the other Bush gas cronies to rip $60
    billion out of the state, leading to, among other things, the impending ouster
    of Gov. Gray Davis.

    When the lights went out, Davis kissed the feet of Southern California Edison's
    John Bryson, who engineered a deregulation bill that gouged $30 billion out of
    the ratepayers for the state's failed nukes. That opened the gates for the gas
    pirates to steal yet another $60 billion. Davis got caught in the backdraft.

    The culprits in this latest northeastern disaster are basically the same---the
    barons of fossil and nuclear power and their cronies in the electric utility
    business.

    Their "weapon" is an ancient electric grid that's obsolete if not obscene. It is
    a massively fragile Rube Goldberg device that dangerously and inefficiently
    carts around electricity from expensive, polluting and extremely unsafe central
    generating plants to buildings that waste massive amounts of energy and generate
    none.

    That the grid will crash again and again and yet again is absolutely certain.
    The only question is who are the real terrorists: errant crazies who blow
    things up, or entrenched interests that refuse to change?

    The technology now exists to transcend this mess. In the mid 1990s California's
    green energy advocates proposed a 600-megawatt mosaic of solar, wind and other
    renewable generators that would have entirely prevented the fake deregulatory
    crisis of 2000-1. It was approved by the California Public Utilities
    Commission, but then killed by Southern California Edison and the Federal Energy
    Regulatory Commission.

    Today, the Bush Administration wants to further subsidize its fossil/utility
    friends with a bad energy bill, and by pouring billions into "upgrading" the
    electric grid. The only thing certain is that every cent of that money will be
    wasted.

    In 1952 a Blue Ribbon report to Harry Truman predicted that the future of
    America's energy rested with the sun. It predicted 13 million solar-powered
    homes here by 1975, and the promise of decentralized, off-grid self-sufficiency.
    .

    Instead, Dwight Eisenhower took us into the pit of the "Peaceful Atom". A
    trillion dollars later, we have a half-century of crashing grids and dangerous
    nukes that are vulnerable to terrorism and must shut down precisely when they're
    most needed, as they did during this latest blackout. The latest Bush energy
    bill only makes the situation worse, with more nuke subsidies and a powerful
    push for fossil fuels, especially coal.

    The whole system demands a green deconstruction. Solar technologies are ready
    to make energy self-sufficiency a tangible reality. Photovoltaic cells on
    rooftops and embedded in windows can produce grid-free electricity, with battery
    or fuel-cell backups. Geothermal power can heat and cool with nothing but the
    power of the earth's crust. Methane digestion can turn waste into usable gas.
    Basement generators can use biomass fuels like ethanol and soy diesel for
    off-grid self-sufficiency.

    These systems need not provide 100% of a building's energy, but can gradually
    make them increasingly self-sufficient. Meanwhile more efficient heating,
    lighting and cooling systems can reduce demand. Windows that actually open and
    close can balance usage, building by building.

    Bush's "upgrading the grid" means a new money pit for the same old unsafe nukes,
    polluting coal burners and gas turbines whose prices are set to skyrocketŠ all
    looped together by dangerous, wasteful wires that are bound to crash again and
    again.

    San Francisco has used part of a public bond to put the first of a new
    generation of solar cells atop its downtown Moscone Center. Those same cells
    could've kept Madison Square Garden or any other Manhattan building up and
    running during this latest outage. Will New Yorkers know better next time?

    The technology for a decentralized, solar-based power system is ready now. We
    don't need massive research breakthroughs.

    We need public demand and fully funded production capacity. And to stop
    repeating the same mistakes because the utility and fossil/nuke guys fund the
    politicians in power.

    This isn't rocket science. It's just common solar sense, known to all since
    1952.

    Harvey Wasserman is author of THE LAST ENERGY WAR and senior editor of
    http://www.freepress.org .

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    -- 
    “Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress.” Copyright 1992, Frank Rice
    Terry W. Colvin, Sierra Vista, Arizona (USA) < fortean1@mindspring.com >
         Alternate: < fortean1@msn.com >
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