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Approximately 14,000 years ago, the unprecedented solar event—now judged to be the most powerful known to have occurred—marked Earth’s transition into the Holocene epoch, according to the findings of an international team of scientists. The team traces the event to around 12,350 BC using a new climate-chemistry model specifically designed to reconstruct ancient solar particle activity. This expands the known timeline for ancient solar storms and raises the bar on the upper boundaries of their intensity. Although the event in question was already known from past observations of radiocarbon spikes in ancient wood samples, its scale and magnitude remained unknown....

President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is warning that the United States is at risk of major widespread blackouts similar to the power cuts that recently shut down most of Spain and Portugal.. Burgum said the blackouts in Europe were caused by over-subsidizing intermittent renewable energy sources. However, he warns that America is now “dangerously close” to suffering from similar “rolling blackouts and grid failure.” Speaking to David Freeberg on “The All-In Podcast,” Burgum admitted that the artificial intelligence (AI) “arms race” with China keeps him “awake at night” due to the amount of electricity that the technology requires....

LISBON — Following massive power grid failures that plunged multiple countries into blackouts, Europe promised its citizens it would get electricity back up as soon as possible so everyone would be able to hear the Muslim call to prayer over the loudspeakers. Officials said they were aware that essential staples of European life, like pausing to pray in the direction of Mecca and asking Allah to grant them bloody victories against the infidels, had been disrupted by the blackouts, but assured everyone the normalcy of assaults and stabbings could resume very soon. "Our way of fundamental Islamic life will continue...

What we know • Massive power outage: Large parts of Spain and Portugal experienced major power outages, shutting off traffic lights and causing chaos at airports and train stations. • Repair efforts underway: Spanish power grid operator Red Electrica said it was working with energy companies to restore power. “The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it,” it said.

Cuba's government said late on Saturday it had restored power to nearly one-fifth of the island's people after the national grid collapsed twice in 24 hours, plunging millions of people into darkness. The unprecedented nationwide blackout is the latest blow in the nation of 10 million, already suffering from dramatic shortages of food, medicine and fuel. Cuba's top electricity official, Lazaro Guerra, said the grid operator was working to restore electricity but that the process would be slow and rushing the job could lead to more blackouts and a deterioration of service. "I cannot assure you that we will be...

Hawaiian Electric is under scrutiny for allegedly slow-walking modernization and repairs of its electrical grid before the fire that ripped through the island of Maui last week. Hawaiian Electric is Hawaii’s principle electric utility, providing power to roughly 95% of the state. Financial disclosures and reports show the company worried about the state of its electrical grid, and specifically the risk of wildfires, but devoted resources to building out the utility’s green energy network with limited action to mitigate fire risk, according to The Wall Street Journal. The scrutiny on the company’s past priorities comes as it faces allegations in...

The Biden administration is reportedly finalizing a proposal that would force fossil fuel-fired power plants to substantially curb emissions or utilize costly carbon capture technology. The proposal — which will soon be released by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — is expected to require coal- and natural gas-fired power plants to cut or capture the vast majority of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2040, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing officials briefed on a draft of the plan. The regulation, if finalized, would represent the first-ever federal action curbing power plant emissions. "EPA cannot comment because the proposals...

Vermont is one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly states. But two years ago, the backers of a local wind-energy farm shelved the project after intense public opposition. An initiative supporter noted how the controversy reflected rising hostility to wind power. Whereas a decade ago, ambitious developers had planned a dozen renewable-energy projects in Vermont, by 2020, most had either folded or failed to win regulatory approval. “This is truly a sad state of affairs for Vermont,” the CEO of a green-energy firm said, while pointing out that the state has mandated that 75 percent of its power should come...

Someone has been attacking power plants all over the country, and federal authorities are trying to determine who it is. In recent days, we have seen significant sabotage on both the east and west coasts, and so it can’t just be one individual that is responsible. During the first eight months of this year, there were a total of 106 attacks on the electrical grid in the United States, and that represents the highest number ever recorded in a single year. Hopefully authorities will be able to get to the bottom of this mystery, because winter will soon officially begin....

The Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) has taken the extraordinary step of suspending the spot market for wholesale electricity across the country. Key points: The electricity sector has been dealing with soaring costs It forced AEMO to cap prices and compel generators to offer their services Now the spot market for wholesale electricity has been suspended to try and ensure reliability The electricity sector has been dealing with soaring costs, forcing AEMO to cap prices and compel generators to offer their services. AEMO has now suspended the spot market entirely across the National Electricity Market — which includes Queensland, Victoria,...

Russia will halt power supply to Finland on Saturday due to lack of payment. According to Reuters, Russian utility Inter RAO will suspend the power supply to Finland due to non-payment since May 6. The Finnish grid company said it can replace Russian electricity supply by importing more electricity from Sweden. Sweden and Finland are both looking to join NATO. Reuters reported:

National Guardsmen just completed a two-week training exercise which saw them respond to a simulated cyberattack that took out critical utilities across the United States. The exercises have become an annual event, but this year took on even more significance after coming on the heels of several major ransomware and cyber attacks that crippled large parts of American infrastructure in recent months. The exercises were part of the seventh Cyber Yankee, an training event that brings together guardsmen from throughout the New England region to test their responses against simulated cyberattacks. This year’s exercises simulated a cyber attack that targeted...

It is rare when a political action can be legitimately labeled seditious and treasonous at the same time. If you ever wondered why the Durham investigation was last seen on the back of a milk carton and why no one involved in thee Russian collusion hoax and the deep state coup to depose the duly elected President Donald J. Trump has been indicted, consider the actions of William Barr, whom Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro, speaking on Maria Bartiromo’s Sunday Morning Futures show on Fox News, dubbed Trump’s last attorney general and Biden’s first. At the end of Trump’s first...

We refuse to enforce our own immigration laws, because law makers don’t “see the point.”Antifa thugs are allowed to run amok, beating up people they disagree with, with little to no push police pushback.Manhattan shuts down on a Saturday night because, well, we don’t exactly know why. Maybe because power companies have done little to harden the grid against technological and terrorist attacks in the past 30 years. Maybe because most electric companies have done little to expand their real power capacity because they’re concentrating on “alternative energy sources” favored by our government overlords. Or maybe it’s because we’ve...

It was inevitable that someday, hackers would have the ability to exert control over the U.S. electrical grid.  According to the computer security firm Symantec, someday is today. Hacking attacks over the last several months that targeted U.S. energy companies have been able to gain "operational control" over systems, thus threatening blackouts across the U.S., says Symantec.  The hacker group known as DragonFly 2.0 was able to gain control in at least 20 places, according to the firm. Wired: Symantec on Wednesday revealed a new campaign of attacks by a group it is calling Dragonfly 2.0, which it says...

Sometime before April 16, 2013, one or more people scouted the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s high-voltage Metcalf substation off Highway 101 near San Jose, California. They went around the unmanned power station at a range of 40-60 yards, marking places from which the transformers’ cooling fins were clearly visible through the chain-link fence with piles of stones. According to a Wall Street Journal report last week, at about 1 a.m. on that April 16, someone cut the telephone lines going to the substation’s location in a manner calculated to be hard to repair. Within about another thirty minutes, shooters...

SNIPPET: "A federal grand jury has issued an eight-count indictment against a central Arkansas man accused of damaging electric cooperative and other power facilities. Jason Woodring, 37, was indicted on charges relating to sabotage of high-voltage power lines and power stations earlier this year in several cities. Among them: a terrorist attack against a railroad carrier and destruction of energy facilities, including a 115,000-volt transmission line owned by First Electric Cooperative in Jacksonville. Woodring faces up to 20 years in prison on the energy facility destruction charges, and life in prison if convicted on the terrorism charge. According to an...

Ethiopia's energy minister played down concerns on Monday about how it would finance the first of an array of mega-dams due to revolutionise east African power markets, saying it was on track to have three plants on line by 2015. The Horn of Africa country has laid out plans to invest more than $12 billion in harnassing the rivers that run through its rugged highlands to generate more than 40,000 MW of hydropower by 2035, making it Africa's leading power exporter. Energy chief Alemayehu Tegenu said the plan's centerpiece - the $4.1 billion-Grand Renaissance Dam along the Nile River in...

Northern India's power grid crashed Monday, halting trains, forcing hospitals and airports onto backup power and providing a dark reminder of the nation's inability to feed a growing hunger for energy as it strives to become an economic power. While the midsummer outage was unique in its reach - it hit 370 million people, more than the population of the United States and Canada combined - its impact was softened by Indians' familiarity with almost daily blackouts of varying duration. Hospitals and major businesses have backup generators that seamlessly kick in during power cuts, and upscale homes are hooked to...

Britain needs to spend money on building defenses against an “E-bomb” that would explode in the upper atmosphere and knock out all electronic communication and power, the Defense Secretary will say today. Phillip Hammond will tell a conference that money needs to be spent on defenses that “cannot be seen on the parade ground.” Dependence on electronic networks “creates vulnerability” he will say, adding that the response cannot be based on “infantry, or jet planes or destroyers.” There is an increasing possibility that a rogue state could use an “E-bomb” that would release a devastating electromagnetic pulse (EMP), experts will...