Posted on 11/24/2012 7:07:09 PM PST by Nachum
Rifles, even .22 caliber models many young people receive as their first gun, are “among the greatest threats to the reliability of the nation’s power system,” U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff claimed at a Tuesday Bloomberg Government Breakfast, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.
Citing “inadequately protected” transformers as easy targets, Wellinghoff told the group that terrorists in "coordinated" actions committed to destroying them “could get 200 yards away with a .22 rifle and take the whole thing out.”
His proposed solution, a “couple hundred bucks” of “metal sheeting to block the view of transformers” hardly seems comprehensive, realistic, or even sober or sane when his further assertion that it will keep people from seeing through fences presupposes the entire perimeter must be covered. That would seem to be a very expensive proposition, especially when multiplied by the thousands of utility substations throughout the U.S. And it’s not like ladders aren’t plentiful enough.
(Excerpt) Read more at examiner.com ...
Between “global warming” and rifles they will brainwash the lemmings to get their vote and the principled will still stay home.
I think they are worried about something, but it’s not about the transformers.
I didn’t know people shooting at transformers was a problem.
Sounds like a solution they have in mind in search of a problem.
His brother-in-law probably manufactures metal sheeting. Follow the money. That’s how these guys operate....
Hooboy. If you’re scared of .22’s, maybe guns aren’t the issue.
Maybe a few terrorists could buy some RC model airplanes drones, and put bombs in them, and crash them into those transformers. Perhaps we should have background checks and waiting periods for buying those things! Or, maybe they could drive a trucks into them; perhaps moats & concrete barriers would help. Or....
We have to fortify every substation and switching yard in the country!
“We have to fortify every substation and switching yard in the country!”
Perhaps simply killing all Muslims would be less expensive?
Still not good enough. I’ll slant drill under it at a shallow depth, frack the ground and drop the whole substation into a 200’ deep hole. ;^)
ping
One is too small to hit at 200 yards. The other that easy to hit at that range is too thick to be damaged.
I don't want to point out the exact spots, but anyone in the biz already knows.
The feds crying wolf about cyber attacks has fallen on a dumb media. Now they want to roll two birds with one stone.
out their butts, of course..
Maybe they could strengthen the xformer by wrapping it in wire. (hehehehe) (just leave the 2 bitter ends facing my property.)
It is a credible threat. A coordinated attack on hundreds of sub stations...organized by cell phone for a specific time on a specific day...would leave a large swath of this country without electricity for months and in some cases years.
There are so few of these transformers held in reserve it's ludicrous. A definite weak spot and no matter what kind of a liberal weasel a-hole says this is a problem...they are correct.
Typical liberal hype to control guns once again.
If you want to make a power grid go down all that you have to do is take a coat-hanger, stretch it out and then form it in a large “S” shape and throw it across the wires of a transmission line. “Pow!” It blows the breakers.
For large high voltage transmission lines use a stripped 12ga wire of about 25 feet, tie a weight to it and sling it over 2 wires of the HV line. Of course it’s a good idea to let go of the wire before it touches the lines.
In all cases it will blow the line breakers.
The fact Wellinghoff would make such a suggestion shows he is an idiot, to put it kindly. Does he think terrorists are so stupid that a metal enclosure around a substation would fool them or protect the transformers? Building it for “a few hundred” dollars? Really. This fool has no idea of the cost of such a wool-brained scheme.
The only way I can forgive such dumb comments is if Wellinghoff is simply saying such fluff for the MSM. Now they’re stupid enough to buy this line.
The only requirement of these scare tactics are to scare the women and timid men. They believe that the government is in business to raise their children and to protect sissies.
It works every time.
Knowing their propensity for twisting facts, if they used any actual ballistics information at all it was from a .22-250.
I used to live in Louisiana, and now live in Western Washington.
My podunk rural REA down in Louisiana properly maintained power line trimming...as a result, we rarely lost power, even in hurricanes, and when power went down, it was brought back up quickly.
Now, in Washington, the "I love the trees" crowd has prevailed and you have the ridiculous situation of 70 foot tall fir trees ten feed away from a 35 foot high power line. If someone spits on the sidewalk or farts, we lose power.
The ONLY available option for the utility to improve reliability is to "underground" the power cables.......which is REALLY expensive for the utility.
Ludicrous.
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