Lights Out

Two prominent newspapers this week gave front-page treatment to warnings that the backbone of America’s 21st Century society is vulnerable to potentially catastrophic disruption.

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times described how solar storms or attacks could take down the electric power grid for protracted periods. On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that such an attack last April nearly blacked out much of the San Francisco Bay area, possibly for years.

The good news is that we know how to harden the grid against the threat of electromagnetic pulse, cyber and physical assaults and space weather. The bad news is that so far nothing is being done to implement such hardening.

We face existential threats. Will we demand of our elected officials and electric utilities that they keep America’s lights on?

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