This post was originally going to be about how the local newspaper -- The Midland Reporter-Telegram -- is too reliant on a Houston Chronicle columnist for information about the petroleum industry all while the local paper brags that this part of the country leads the nation in petroleum production. But the post got hijacked by this article: As North Korea threatens electromagnetic pulse attack, questions over lapses in US grid security rise.
This wasn't a new threat, Kim Jong Un has been threatening something bad for a very long time, and it is certainly no secret that his missile crew has the capability to deliver a nuclear bomb into the air and explode it high over the U.S. We've been told that 90% of the people in the U.S. would be dead within a year. That's merely conjecture, but it certainly sounds reasonable given that everything we currently take for granted will disappear and roving gangs of armed marauders will be scouring residential neighborhoods for scraps.
For a sampling of a best case scenario, look at the news from Puerto Rico following their utility wipe-out. But at least there the personally owned electrical devices still work.
Anyway, utilities on the mainland don't appear to be all that prepared for an EMP power interruption. Maybe they they really are prepared and are just keeping it secret. But that seems doubtful given how they would have to spend money to do it. And while it seems reasonable that utility commissions would grant authority to raise rates for that, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that the utilities have asked.
So let's get back to the original purpose of this post. An article by Chris Tomlinson that was in the Houston Chronicle was presented to readers of the Midland Reporter-Telegram recently as top of the front page news. Here's the link to Too much energy creates a challenge for Texas electricity grid.
Tomlinson explains in that column how all the natural gas in Texas is driving down prices and hurting the electric utilities. He closes with this:
Texas led the nation in doing away with government-regulated monopolies and introducing less-regulated competition. That has led to some of the lowest power prices in the country and a boom in industrial construction.
The state should not abandon its faith in the competitive market by fixing the game to protect incumbents. Driving out the old and inefficient is what the market is all about, and we should welcome the creative destruction created by our enormous energy potential.
But what about putting some money into protecting the grid from an EMP attack? The MRT.com is very fond of Mr. Tomlinson's columns, so maybe they could request him to address that issue in one of his columns.
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1:06 PM 9/26/2017
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