Related:
My EMP Dream (10/23/08): All Cars Suddenly Stopped From Electromagnetic Pulse Weapon?
From: WND
Senate dumps strategy to prevent EMP damage
House planned defense against ‘malicious acts’ using shock wave
Posted: August 07, 2010
12:30 am Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
The U.S. Senate has dropped a House-approved plan that would prepare the United States to defend itself from an attack from any electromagnetic pulse source – whether it would be from a natural solar flare or the detonation of a space-located nuclear weapon by enemies intent on destroying America’s infrastructure, according to a representative who has raised alarms over EMP.
U.S. Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md., said it is “unfortunate.”
“While one part of the federal government was warning us of possible solar electromagnetic-pulse damage to our electric grid, a key Senate commission approved a bill to ignore this threat,” he said.
“It’s particularly ironic since the Senate amended a bill, H.R. 5026, approved unanimously by the House that would specifically protect the grid against solar EMP and other physical threats,” he said.
The concern is that any nuclear detonation that could be launched into the atmosphere anywhere from 25 to 250 miles above the United States could decimate the nation’s electric grid, essentially transporting it instantly back to an era of mechanical machines and agriculture.
Bartlett explained that the danger also comes from naturally occurring EMP signals from sources such as a solar storm. …
“The National Academies of Sciences predicted in a 2008 report that a solar geomagnetic storm as severe as the Carrington event that occurred in 1859 could inflict $1 trillion to $2 trillion [damage] and take 4-10 years to recover from. That compares with the $300 billion impact of Hurricane Katrina,” Bartlett noted. …
Whether the damage would come from a natural solar event or a nuclear bomb detonated in the atmosphere over America, the results could be the same for power distributors, telecommunications companies, satellite and aviation-sector companies – a virtual shutdown.
The results for Americans would be a collapse in the delivery system for food, fuel, information and communications.
.
From: WND
EMP could leave ‘9 out of 10 Americans dead’
…experts forecast if such an attack were a success, it effectively could throw the U.S. back into an age of agriculture.
“Within a year of that attack, nine out of 10 Americans would be dead, because we can’t support a population of the present size in urban centers and the like without electricity,” said Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy.
.
From: WND
EMP threatens power shutdown for months
Congressman says $100 million need to avert $2 trillion disaster
Posted: August 20, 2009
1:00 am Eastern
© 2010 WorldNetDaily
WASHINGTON – There’s been a lot of talk about the potentially devastating impact of an electrical grid shutdown from the effects of an electro-magnetic pulse from the sun or from terrorism, but little action, says a prominent members of Congress.
But it’s worse than a threat on the horizon, says Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Maryland. It’s an inevitability.
Bartlett told NPR that EMP is “an event we will not avoid” – and remediation after the fact will cost between $1 trillion and $2 trillion. Protection of the grid in advance of the disaster will cost $100 million, he said.
The threat of an EMP attack by a terrorist group or foreign enemy has been a major concern for years. But Bartlett said nature, too, represents a potential time bomb.
“The more sophisticated we become, the more vulnerable we are,” said Bartlett. “There’s a huge concern about cyber-attacks on the grid. [Well] a really robust [nuclear] EMP lay-down means microelectronics across the country would be shut down [and] you have no power…there’s one event that we will not avoid, and that is a solar electromagnetic interference, solar storm. If we have a big one like the one that occurred back in 1859, that would shut down the whole grid for quite a long while. … It would cost about $100 million to protect much of the grid, but if the grid went down, it would cost us between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in damages, and the loss of life could be horrendous if in fact you were without electricity for months at a time. There’s a bill in the House, and … it’s got to go through the Energy and Commerce Committee.”
Leave a Reply