Ridiculous. You can’t possible believe that?
No agriculture. No communications. No production of petroleum products. No Coal. No traffic on the highways. No rail traffic.
That is what no electricity and no communications means.
One season without significant agriculture, and 90% of the people die. It is that simple.
How do you avoid it? 60% of people live in big cities. How do you get them to the fields where they will have to plant and harvest food to make it through the winter, without transport and communication?
Having electricity and communications down over most of the U.S. for a year is very unlikely, but I do not see how you avoid the consequences if that were to happen.
What do you mean no agriculture? An EMP attack will not kill one cow.