Shield Act to protect America from EMP disaster - Bowling Green Daily News
So, what's the saying?
If the Govt is digging foxholes, you should be digging foxholes.
There's some Truth to that.
Although the 11-year Solar Cycle Maximum stage is set to peak in July, EMP's are a Greater threat to the grid.
Wednesdays 5p CDT/6p EDT Call 347 539-5154
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/usaebn/2013/06/26/situational-preparedness
It’s among the greatest threats facing America today, U.S. Congressman Trent Franks states bluntly: a tremendous
electromagnetic pulse, either naturally occurring or from a small nuclear device detonated outside the atmosphere.
A large enough pulse (EMP) could destroy the electric grid, notably the rare and very expensive transformers that form the grid's backbone. Without them and the power they deliver, a vast swath of American technology and every system that relies upon it would go dark for months or even years, some fear -- essentially sending the country back to the stone age.
And we’re utterly unprepared for this potentially catastrophic threat, said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.
“A pre-industrial society, which is what we would be reduced to, would not have the ability to sustain itself as we do today,” he told FoxNews.com.
A 2004 panel bluntly described the effects of a "Carrington Event," named for the largest solar storm in history, an 1859 solar blast that shook the planet. Bill Graham, chairman of the panel, said as many as 9 out of 10 of could be killed in the aftermath, Gaffney said.
“Think of people in cities with no access to food or water, no sewage, no access to transport to get out of there … those become dead zones in a matter of weeks or at most months. And the population living off the land elsewhere may be able to sustain itself, but nowhere like what we have at the moment,” Gaffney said.
“It’s really grim,” he told FoxNews.com.
To address this threat, Congressman Trent Franks and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich introduced a bill Tuesday to protect the grid. Called the SHIELD Act
, or the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage, the bill would push the federal government to install grid-saving devices, surge protectors that could save the transformers and power system from EMPs.
The main source of these wicked pulses are storms on the surface of the sun -- giant, rope-like strands of plasma hundreds of thousands of miles long that have been rolling off the surface of that boiling star overhead in increasing numbers. The sun hurls these gas and magnetic fields millions of miles across space, disrupting satellite communications, navigation and power, explained NASA head Charlie Bolden at a conference on space weather June 4.
“Space weather impacts can be seen throughout the solar system,” Bolden said. “Given the growing importance of space to our Nation’s economic well-being and security, it is of increasing importance … to understand and predict space weather events.”
In other words, the sun sneezes and the economy shatters, as one article recently put it.
It’s no idle threat, either: in March 1989, the power grid in Quebec went from normal to shutdown in 92 seconds during a huge magnetic storm, according to a recent report by insurance giant Lloyds of London. It took 9 hours to restore normal operations, during which time five million people were without electricity. Total cost: about $2 billion.
The bill centers on protecting modern high-voltage transformers, which can weigh up to 400 tons, cost millions of dollars, and are made in only a handful of facilities in the U.S. A June 2012 report a June 2012 report by the Dept. of Energy called them a key failure point in the grid, citing volatile raw-material pricing – copper and electrical steel – and a lead time for manufacturing that can stretch to 20 months.
"It's critical that we protect our major transformers from cascading destruction. The SHIELD Act encourages industry to develop standards necessary to protect our electric infrastructure against both natural and man-made EMP events," Franks said, according to the Washington Examiner.
Franks has been pursuing the bill since early 2011, when he first introduced H.R. 668. At the time, he called it “the single greatest asymmetric capability that could fall into the hands of America's enemies.”
Gaffney agrees, noting that anyone aware of the system understands it’s something we need to take action on.
“If we can at least insure that the backbone of the electric grid survives -- these transformers -- you have a basis upon which to rebuild the rest of the country. If you lose those, you’re toast,” he told FoxNews.com.
U. S. Rep. Trent Franks, R- Ariz., recently introduced H.R. 2417 known as the SHIELD Act. The acronym stands for Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage.
Franks has 19 cosponsors, including Democrat Yvette Clarke of New York, the Ranking Member on the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. The SHIELD Act seeks “to protect the bulk-power system and electric infrastructure critical to the defense and well-begin of the United States against natural and manmade electromagnetic pulse (“EMP”) threats and vulnerabilities.”
“A nuclear weapon detonated at high-altitude, above 30 kilometers, will generate an electromagnetic pulse that can be likened to a super-energetic radio wave, more powerful than lightning, that can destroy and disrupt electronics across a broad geographic area.”
A congressionally-created commission reported that “unprecedented cascading failures of our major infrastructures could result” from an EMP and be “catastrophic to the Nation.” Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says, “This could be the kind of catastrophe that ends civilization – and that’s not an exaggeration.”
Woolsey warns that Iran has the capability to launch an EMP attack from a vessel at sea. He also says North Korea could deliver a warhead from a meteorological balloon, satellite, or missile, which would “pose an existential threat to the U. S.”
In a blog post for a progressive think tank linking “peace, justice, and the environment,” Farley dismissed preparedness efforts like the SHIELD Act as “quixotic threat-mongering.” He posits that the ulterior motive of “the EMP awareness movement appears to be advancement of the cause of missile defense.”
 |
| EMP Burst Area by Height, Gary Simon - "Electromagnetic Pulse Threats" |
If the Govt is digging foxholes, you should be digging foxholes.
There's some Truth to that.
Although the 11-year Solar Cycle Maximum stage is set to peak in July, EMP's are a Greater threat to the grid.
We will cover this on tonight's #SitPrep
Wednesdays 5p CDT/6p EDT Call 347 539-5154
Listen to internet radio with USA Emergency Broadcasting Network on BlogTalkRadio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/usaebn/2013/06/26/situational-preparedness
SHIELD Act to protect from solar catastrophes, electromagnetic pulses
electromagnetic pulse, either naturally occurring or from a small nuclear device detonated outside the atmosphere.
A large enough pulse (EMP) could destroy the electric grid, notably the rare and very expensive transformers that form the grid's backbone. Without them and the power they deliver, a vast swath of American technology and every system that relies upon it would go dark for months or even years, some fear -- essentially sending the country back to the stone age.
And we’re utterly unprepared for this potentially catastrophic threat, said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy and former assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.
'[Cities] become dead zones in a matter of weeks or at most months.'- Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy
“A pre-industrial society, which is what we would be reduced to, would not have the ability to sustain itself as we do today,” he told FoxNews.com.
A 2004 panel bluntly described the effects of a "Carrington Event," named for the largest solar storm in history, an 1859 solar blast that shook the planet. Bill Graham, chairman of the panel, said as many as 9 out of 10 of could be killed in the aftermath, Gaffney said.
“Think of people in cities with no access to food or water, no sewage, no access to transport to get out of there … those become dead zones in a matter of weeks or at most months. And the population living off the land elsewhere may be able to sustain itself, but nowhere like what we have at the moment,” Gaffney said.
“It’s really grim,” he told FoxNews.com.
To address this threat, Congressman Trent Franks and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich introduced a bill Tuesday to protect the grid. Called the SHIELD Act
, or the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage, the bill would push the federal government to install grid-saving devices, surge protectors that could save the transformers and power system from EMPs.The main source of these wicked pulses are storms on the surface of the sun -- giant, rope-like strands of plasma hundreds of thousands of miles long that have been rolling off the surface of that boiling star overhead in increasing numbers. The sun hurls these gas and magnetic fields millions of miles across space, disrupting satellite communications, navigation and power, explained NASA head Charlie Bolden at a conference on space weather June 4.
“Space weather impacts can be seen throughout the solar system,” Bolden said. “Given the growing importance of space to our Nation’s economic well-being and security, it is of increasing importance … to understand and predict space weather events.”
In other words, the sun sneezes and the economy shatters, as one article recently put it.
It’s no idle threat, either: in March 1989, the power grid in Quebec went from normal to shutdown in 92 seconds during a huge magnetic storm, according to a recent report
by insurance giant Lloyds of London. It took 9 hours to restore normal operations, during which time five million people were without electricity. Total cost: about $2 billion.The bill centers on protecting modern high-voltage transformers, which can weigh up to 400 tons, cost millions of dollars, and are made in only a handful of facilities in the U.S. A June 2012 report a June 2012 report by the Dept. of Energy
called them a key failure point in the grid, citing volatile raw-material pricing – copper and electrical steel – and a lead time for manufacturing that can stretch to 20 months."It's critical that we protect our major transformers from cascading destruction. The SHIELD Act encourages industry to develop standards necessary to protect our electric infrastructure against both natural and man-made EMP events," Franks said
, according to the Washington Examiner.Franks has been pursuing the bill since early 2011, when he first introduced H.R. 668. At the time, he called it “the single greatest asymmetric capability that could fall into the hands of America's enemies.”
Gaffney agrees, noting that anyone aware of the system understands it’s something we need to take action on.
“If we can at least insure that the backbone of the electric grid survives -- these transformers -- you have a basis upon which to rebuild the rest of the country. If you lose those, you’re toast,” he told FoxNews.com.
Shield Act to protect America from EMP disaster
Posted: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 11:20 am
U. S. Rep. Trent Franks, R- Ariz., recently introduced H.R. 2417 known as the SHIELD Act. The acronym stands for Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage.
Franks has 19 cosponsors, including Democrat Yvette Clarke of New York, the Ranking Member on the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Infrastructure Protection, and Security Technologies. The SHIELD Act seeks “to protect the bulk-power system and electric infrastructure critical to the defense and well-begin of the United States against natural and manmade electromagnetic pulse (“EMP”) threats and vulnerabilities.”
What is EMP? In recent testimony to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, James Woolsey, director of the CIA under Bill Clinton, described it.
“A nuclear weapon detonated at high-altitude, above 30 kilometers, will generate an electromagnetic pulse that can be likened to a super-energetic radio wave, more powerful than lightning, that can destroy and disrupt electronics across a broad geographic area.”
Woolsey says, “An EMP attack would collapse the electric grid and other infrastructure that depends on it – communications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water – necessary to sustain modern civilization and the lives of 300 million Americans.”
A congressionally-created commission reported that “unprecedented cascading failures of our major infrastructures could result” from an EMP and be “catastrophic to the Nation.” Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich says, “This could be the kind of catastrophe that ends civilization – and that’s not an exaggeration.”
Woolsey warns that Iran has the capability to launch an EMP attack from a vessel at sea. He also says North Korea could deliver a warhead from a meteorological balloon, satellite, or missile, which would “pose an existential threat to the U. S.”
Woolsey is especially worried about an attack coming at America from the south. “The United States has no Ballistic Missile Early Warning radars or missile interceptors facing south,” the former top spy says. “We might not even see the attack coming.”
Some therefore urge serious consideration of a preemptive strike against North Korea’s nuclear capacity. But a space weather event, like a solar storm, could also produce an EMP. So improved infrastructure protection makes sense regardless. The SHIELD Act seeks federal support for installing surge protectors to protect the grid and expensive transformers critical to it from any kind of EMP. But some, including Robert Farley, an assistant professor at the University of Kentucky’s Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce, are suspicious of the SHIELD Act.
Farley is a liberal academic who regularly ridicules Republicans and conservative foreign policy positions. National Journal quotes him as calling concerns about Iran or North Korea carrying out an EMP attack as “overblown” and “an incredibly unlikely scenario.”
In a blog post for a progressive think tank linking “peace, justice, and the environment,” Farley dismissed preparedness efforts like the SHIELD Act as “quixotic threat-mongering.” He posits that the ulterior motive of “the EMP awareness movement appears to be advancement of the cause of missile defense.”
Whom should we trust? A leftist junior professor confident that Tehran’s religious zealots and Pyongyang’s bizarre tyrants would not do anything rash toward America? Or a bipartisan group of experienced, fact-based American political leaders whose top priority is protecting the homeland from potential catastrophe?
No Kentucky congressman is currently among the SHIELD Act’s sponsors.
All of them should be. Consider letting them know before it is too late.
- See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2013/06/shield-act-to-protect-america-from-emp.html#uds-search-results
Thank you for visiting.
@NebudchenezzarS
All of them should be. Consider letting them know before it is too late.
SHIELDAct.com
H.R. 668 – "Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage"
Reference:
If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do?
The “super derecho”
storm that pounded the Washington D.C. area on Friday night with
hurricane-force winds is being called unprecedented. But the truth is
that there are other events that could happen that would be far more
damaging to our power grid. For example, a substantial EMP burst over a
major U.S. city would fry virtually all of the electronics in the city
and take the power grid in the area down indefinitely. A gigantic EMP
burst over the entire country (caused by a massive solar storm or a very
large nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere) could theoretically
take down the entire national power grid.
http://preppercentral.com/?p=2185#more-2185
- See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2012/07/if-one-storm-can-turn-dc-dark-for.html#sthash.gP4MSTAQ.dpufhttp://preppercentral.com/?p=2185#more-2185
If One Storm Can Turn D.C. Dark For Several Days, What Would A Massive EMP Burst Do?
The “super derecho”
storm that pounded the Washington D.C. area on Friday night with
hurricane-force winds is being called unprecedented. But the truth is
that there are other events that could happen that would be far more
damaging to our power grid. For example, a substantial EMP burst over a
major U.S. city would fry virtually all of the electronics in the city
and take the power grid in the area down indefinitely. A gigantic EMP
burst over the entire country (caused by a massive solar storm or a very
large nuclear explosion high in the atmosphere) could theoretically
take down the entire national power grid.
http://preppercentral.com/?p=2185#more-2185
- See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2012/07/if-one-storm-can-turn-dc-dark-for.html#sthash.gP4MSTAQ.dpufhttp://preppercentral.com/?p=2185#more-2185
Jul 09, 2012
For
example, a substantial EMP burst over a major U.S. city would fry
virtually all of the electronics in the city and take the power grid in
the area down indefinitely. A gigantic EMP burst over the entire country
(caused by a ...
Oct 20, 2012
Homeland
Security Report (New WMDs EMP Attack) Here is a report from the
Washington Times that is based on a Pentagon sponsored report that is
talking about new WMD, to include EMP weapons, cyber-attacks and ...
Sep 06, 2012
So
unless you are preparing for an EMP (or an engineer), you may not have
heard of one before. My personal preps include the necessity of a
Faraday Cage and I suggest yours do as well. A Faraday Cage is the only
thing ...
1
2
Jul 09, 2012
Jul 09, 2012
For
example, a substantial EMP burst over a major U.S. city would fry
virtually all of the electronics in the city and take the power grid in
the area down indefinitely. A gigantic EMP burst over the entire country
(caused by a ...
- See more at: http://madtownpreppers.blogspot.com/2013/06/shield-act-to-protect-america-from-emp.html#uds-search-results
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