Blackout Follies

Blackout Follies
by Jennifer King, Managing Editor

August 22, 2003

"The Heretical Housewife"

Managing Editor Jennifer King When the lights went out in New York City on Thursday, August 14th (viewed from space), everything came to a screeching halt. Thousands were trapped in darkened subway tubes. Hundreds had to hot foot it down floors in skyscrapers. Many, unable to get home because the trains didn’t run, slept on the streets in their business attire. Throughout, it was sweltering because the air conditioners didn’t work. Yet, New Yorkers kept their cool, individually and as a group. NYPD and FDNY proved their calm efficiency once more, directing traffic at darkened intersections and immediately quelling two small fires which could have spiraled out of control Amazingly, there was not one fatality or even one injury which resulted from this unexpected disaster. As after 9/11, New Yorkers pulled together and helped one another. In this city more often known for its brusqueness, New Yorkers showed remarkable compassion and charity towards each other.

One would think that this remarkable outcome would be celebrated by New York’s elected class. One would be wrong. Far from asking what she could do to remedy the situation, or to help her constituents, Senator Hillary Clinton instead took the opportunity to snipe at President Bush. Immediately calling in to Larry King, Senator Clinton said that Bush was irresponsible for “pushing deregulation” and “coddling” companies like Enron. Clinton’s comments struck many as grossly inappropriate, crass and self-serving, coming at a time when New York needed help. Furthermore, while New York businesswomen were sleeping on subway grates, her Royal Highness made her snide remarks from the air-conditioned comfort of her plush Chappaqua mansion. Let them eat cake.

New Mexico’s Governor, Bill Richardson, also chimed in. “America is a superpower with a Third World grid”, said this former Secretary of Energy. One might believe that Mr. Richardson should perhaps have solved the problem when he was in charge. Once again, one would be wrong.

The problems with the aging electrical grids of the nation has been known since at least the 1980’s. In 1982, Bill Browning of the Rocky Mountain Institute issued a report which advised obtaining greater sources of energy for a growing population. In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney said that 1300 new plants, built within 20 years, would be necessary to meet the nation’s power needs. In 2000 and 2001, in the wake of the California power crisis, President Bush set up a task force, assigned to work on energy problems. In 2002, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge spoke to the Electric Industries Alliance about the nation’s growing electrical problems. So, this Administration has at least taken the situation seriously. Clinton’s and Richardson’s remarks seem but transparent attempts to deflect criticism of their own Administration’s failure to deal with it.

The problems with energy are great, and many of them have to do with the systematic stonewalling and obfuscation created by the extreme Left. During the Clinton Administration, the energy crisis was exacerbated both by Clinton’s shameless pandering to the Greens and the passage of the EPA‘s “New Source Review” rules, which impeded or outright cancelled new energy projects.

As shown on Thursday, the situation has reached critical mass. There have been few new oil refineries built since 1976, and the existing ones are running (poorly) at full capacity. The EPA puts burdensome fines on older plants, and refurbishments become cost prohibitive. Government regulations and red tape become intractable. 40% of all natural gas reserves are now inaccessible due to radical environmentalists, who lock up any drilling proposals in costly court actions. Accordingly, gas storage levels are at their lowest point in 30 years and the price has doubled. The lefties are also relentlessly opposed to hydroelectric power, with the radical fringe even advocating - with some success - the dismantling of existing dams. Greens even oppose environment-friendly wind power -labeling windmills dismissively as “condor Cusinarts”. Of course, nuclear power - the power which dare not speak its name - is verboten even though most of France is safely powered by it, and even though Lawrence Livermore has discovered a new and effective way of disposing of nuclear waste. Hysterical radicals oppose them all.

It is unlikely that the United States will return to the imagined utopia of the carless 1800s. These modern-day Luddites must be fought, and defeated. In truth, many of the problems associated with drilling, refining and the internal combustion engine have been solved using technological means. Clean, efficient energy production and transmission are available and necessary to fuel the engine which drives the American economy. The Left will scream, holler and generally flail about on all the approved airwaves. Let them. The more level headed public sees that there’s a problem, and that it must be fixed. When HRC emerges from her castle to screech more invective about Bush, she’ll look as foolish and self-serving as she did during The Great Blackout of 2003. While New Yorkers helped each other, Hillary cared only for herself. ***

Photo of Jennifer King courtesy of staff files
Satellite Photo courtesy of NOAA Defense Meteorological Satellite Program and Space.com