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WASHINGTON — The electric grid, as government and private experts describe it, is the glass jaw of American industry. If an adversary lands a knockout blow, they fear, it could black out vast areas of the continent for weeks; interrupt supplies of water, gasoline, diesel fuel and fresh food; shut down communications; and create disruptions of a scale that was only hinted at by Hurricane Sandy and the attacks of Sept. 11.
“This is different from a hurricane that hits X, Y and Z counties in the Southeast and they have a loss of power for three or four days,” said the official in charge of the drill, Brian M. Harrell of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, known as NERC. “We really want to go beyond that.”
One goal of the drill, called GridEx II, is to explore how governments would react as the loss of the grid crippled the supply chain for everyday necessities.
“If we fail at electricity, we’re going to fail miserably,” Curt Hébert, a former chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, said at a recent conference held by the Bipartisan Policy Center.
An emerging effort led in part by R. James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, is gearing up to pressure state legislatures to force utilities to protect equipment against an electromagnetic pulse, which could come from solar activity or be caused by small nuclear weapons exploded at low altitude, frying crucial components.
An attack using an electromagnetic pulse is laid out in extensive detail in the novel “One Second After,” published in 2009 and endorsed by Newt Gingrich. In another novel, “Gridlock,” published this summer and co-written by Byron L. Dorgan, the former senator from North Dakota, a rogue Russian agent working for Venezuela and Iran helps hackers threaten the grid. In the preface, Mr. Dorgan says such an attack could cause 10,000 times as much devastation as the terrorists’ strikes on Sept. 11, 2001.
Arken
"Comet Ison approach", "Magnetic Storm from the Sun", "NASA To Have A BIG Announcement On November 13th", "More ‘UFO Crash Drills’ In UK Schools"... Three Days of Darkness?
WTH will happen?
SouthernRain55
reply to post by Arken
the power won't actually be turned off for the drill.
gnosticagnostic
reply to post by kiwitina948
Interestingly enough most of humanity has lived without power for thousands of centuries... sure some pansy's might wither away from lack of lighting but really most will survive per usual. The humans will survive.
gnosticagnostic
reply to post by kiwitina948
Interestingly enough most of humanity has lived without power for thousands of centuries... sure some pansy's might wither away from lack of lighting but really most will survive per usual. The humans will survive.