August 14, 2003 -- Most of you saw the videotape coverage. The streets of New York City clogged with people.  The evacuation of people from the subways, deep inside the tunnels.  You know that the elevators stopped, some in mid descent or ascent, trapping people within.  You know that without electricity every computer without local backup power from Ottawa to Michigan and over to the East Coast went down.  You know that in the middle of the hottest part of the year, air conditioners stopped working, and some of the most vulnerable of our citizens faced heat exhaustion in their tenements.

But, in all the big media coverage did you hear anybody tell you why it happened?

No, you didn’t.  You heard them talk about this or that power plant going down from too much demand, which placed a high demand on those which were left, which caused them to shut down, as well, in a cascading series of power cutoffs that built into a regional blackout.  But, you didn’t hear why it happened.

Here is why it happened.

The Sierra Club and friends. (ABC, the New York Times, Al Gore, etc.)

They are also responsible for the brownouts in California last year.  Why?  Because their overweening influence in our governments from cities to states to the federal level, has brought power development to a virtual standstill.  (Gray Davis hasn't added a watt to the grid during his entire time as governor. See A Public Comedy of Errors  )

This doesn’t require an engineering degree, folks.

If all your power needs are supplied by a centralized grid which is not allowed to expand to meet increasing need, you are heading for a blackout.  A five gallon fuel tank will not allow an eighteen wheeler to haul cargo from Portland to Pendleton.  It’s as simple as that.  If you add a million new citizens to your state, which is exactly what happened in California, they come with power needs.  Lights, heating, cooling, television sets and toasters.  If you don’t increase your power grid’s capacity, which is exactly what happened in California, your power grid will collapse under the added demand. 

For decades, the greenies and their Democrat friends have strangled new power development.  Because of the power plant construction regulations they have pushed through, the various government agencies involved have brought such attempts to, if not a standstill, a snail's pace.  But, that’s not all they have accomplished. Loving centralization as socialists do, they have made it possible for one terrorist in the right spot with a packsack full of dynamite to bring down a power grid that runs from Ottawa to Ohio and east to the Atlantic, blacking out the lives of more than ¼ of North America’s population in a single, easy stroke.

As I write this, the East Coast blackout is going on.  What would happen if some terrorists had a few airliners right now?  Or if some terrorists on a skyscraper roof had a bag of chemicals or biological agents? You couldn’t even warn the residents of New York City. 

Is there a solution to this  power disaster, and pending danger?  Of course.

Never vote for a Democrat again. 

Not all Republicans are conservatives, of course, so not all of them will support what needs to be done.  But a great many Republicans are conservative, and if that party has filibuster and veto-proof majorities in congress and our legislatures and town councils, it will mean that after a while most of our judges will be conservatives, as well.

The enviro-whackos will have nowhere to turn.  They will no longer control government agencies, our lawmaking assemblies or our courts.  At that time, you will see the beginning of a revolution.  Conservatives don’t like centralization.  Conservatives believe in utilizing a higher percentage of natural resources instead of locking them up in an ever-expanding vista of new national parks.  They will deregulate the power industry, open up places like Alaska’s Anwar region and coastal areas to petroleum and natural gas exploration and development, make it possible to build new power plants without going broke and in so doing both lower this nation’s dependency on foreign oil and dramatically increase this nation’s power generating capacity.

As of this writing, there is no evidence that terrorism caused this East Coast blackout.  As of this writing, it is evident to anyone who cares to put in a few hours of research on the problem that it could have been.  Our view is that to fail to learn this lesson at a time when we aren’t being attacked would allow it to reoccur when we are.

Can you stop being warm and fuzzy about the environment long enough to protect your children from having to stand there in the dark while disease, chemical poisons or nuclear dust is sweeping across their home?

Are you capable of facing the truth?  Of determining from a list of risks, which are the more and which are the less immediately dangerous?

If you are, the next time you see one of these greasy marchers carrying an anti-nuke power sign, or demanding an end to the use of coal or petroleum products for power generation, or blocking the construction of a natural gas power plant, you will spit in his face, then sit down and call, write or email your political representatives, demanding the construction of more energy generating facilities, and ever more decentralization of power grids.

If your political representatives are conservative Republicans, your demand will be met with an immediate and positive response.  If they are Democrats, buy a gas mask and a kerosene lantern.

Don’t think for a moment it can’t happen here in the Pacific Northwest.  I know how to do it here, and so do hundreds of people who, unlike me, don’t give a damn about you or your family.  I wouldn’t for the world publish such information, but accept this as fact.  Give anybody who knows how to use it an eighteen wheeler with the right materials inside, and in 24 hours everybody on the West Coast from Seattle to San Francisco will drop into a blackout that would last for a decade.

You have been warned.  If you do not heed this warning, and terrorists do it, do not turn to any conservative, including me, and weep over the devastation.  We will not listen, or feel pity for you. 

You will have brought it down on your own head.

(LL)

P.S. (August 18, 2003)

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM 
Al Qaida claims responsibility for blackout 

  Al Qaida's Abu Hafs Brigades has claimed responsibility for the blackout last week in the Northeast and Midwest United   States. A communiqué by the Abu Hafs Brigades made reference to Operation Quick Lightning in the Land of the Tyrant of this Generation." 

© 2003 Oregon Magazine