Global Warming
And Widespread Blackouts Are Just As Deadly
As Terrorism
By Jason Leopold
01 September, 2005
Countercurrents.org
Two
years ago this month, a Blackout plunged 50 million people in Northeastern
U.S. and the Canadian province of Ontario into total darkness for more
than a day, wreaking havoc on the U.S. economy. Now, its the devastation
in Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi wrought by Hurricane Katrina
that has killed hundreds, perhaps thousands of people.
The common thread
in both disasters is that energy and environmental experts sounded early
alarms about the potential for catastrophes like this unless the White
House immediately took the necessary steps to upgrade the countrys
aging power grid to stave off widespread power failures, and in the
case of Hurricane Katrina, backed the Kyoto protocol, which aims to
curb the air pollution blamed for severe climate changes that is no
doubt the reason Katrina turned from a relatively small hurricane to
a destructive monstrosity due to high sea surface temperatures in the
Gulf of Mexico, according to the National Weather Service.
While supporting
the Kyoto treaty would not have done anything to prevent an act of God
like Hurricane Katrina or the destruction left in its aftermath it would
have been a step in the right direction. Global Warming isnt some
hair-brained scheme cooked up in a laboratory by mad scientists. Its
an issue that is as real as terrorism. And its just as deadly.
In keeping with
this columns theme, power shortages and daily blackouts have become
a daily occurrence around the country over the past few years as the
antiquated power grid is continuously stretched beyond its meansmainly
a result of electricity deregulation, whereby power is sent hundreds
of miles across the grid to consumers by out-of-state power companies
as opposed to power being sent to consumers by local utilities, which
is what the grid was designed for.
Still, the Bush
administration, and Democratic and Republican lawmakers, has refused
to treat the issues with the same type of urgency given to the so-called
war on terror, which makes the presidents sympathetic response
to Katrinas victims and those who are trapped inside elevators
during blackouts insincere.
Keep in mind the
White House refuses to change its stance on the issues because it would
be economically unfriendly to President Bushs financial supportersthe
oil and gas industry who just got $15 billion in tax breaks under the
new energy bill that guarantees these corporate behemoths will end up
emitting more toxic emissions and greenhouse gases into the air from
their power plants and refineries, further eroding the environment and,
as a result, ensuring that Global Warming, and unusual weather related
disasters like Hurricane Katrina, are here to stay.
On the electricity
front, all may appear to be back to normal since the worst blackout
in the nations history struck an unsuspecting public two years
ago. But theres a crisis in the making there too and its
only a matter of time before another catastrophic power failure hits.
Just last week,
more than 500,000 Southern California residents fell victim to rolling
blackouts after a transmission line linking California to Oregon tripped,
creating a shortage of more than 2,600 megawatts. One megawatt can light
about 750 homes.
Two years ago, President
Bush promised that the nations aging power grid would quickly
be updated to stave off the potential for future blackouts and to handle
growing demand, but so far nothing substantial has been done and the
likelihood for a Hurricane Katrina-like disaster remains all too real.
Demand for electricity is expected to increase by 45 percent by 2025.
The Bush administration has not developed a plan to handle, at the very
least, the annual increase in demand.
Spotting the potential
for a disaster similar to the August 2002 blackout, Pat Wood, the former
chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and a close friend
of Bush, distanced himself from the do nothing attitude of his friends
in the White House.
The reliability
of the transmission grid is too important to let another year go by
without legislation providing for nationwide mandatory reliability rules,
Wood said at a June 8 Energy and Resources Subcommittee hearing on the
reliability of the nations electricity system.
Currently, power
companies maintain grid reliability by following voluntary guidelines
designed by the power industry, just like the voluntary emissions limits
the fossil-fuel industry says it upholds. A measure that would have
imposed mandatory grid reliability rules and mandatory limits on fossil
fuel and greenhouse gas emissions was defeated by the Senate earlier
this year at the urging of President Bush, who said the voluntary rules
were working.
Jason Leopold is
the author of the explosive memoir, News Junkie, to be released in the
spring of 2006 by Process/Feral House Books. Visit Leopold's website
at www.jasonleopold.com for updates.
© 2005 Jason
Leopold