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Peter1469
04-11-2019, 10:41 AM
President signs EO over protecting the grid from EMPs / solar flares (https://www.newsmax.com/peterpry/electromagnetic-pulses-trump-executive-order/2019/04/08/id/910677/#ixzz5kWk3nzdH)

I haven't seen the EO or what it is based on. But this article is a counter-argument to a group of college students who say the EO is not necessary.


The American people owe President Trump a debt of gratitude, and perhaps someday their lives, for his “Executive Order on Coordinating National Resilience to Electromagnetic Pulses” signed on March 26, 2019.The EMP Executive Order is designed to protect America’s life-sustaining critical infrastructures — such as the electric grid, telecommunications, transportation, banking and finance, food and water — from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by an exo-atmospheric nuclear detonation or solar superstorm.


Scientists and strategic EMP experts have been advocating for an EMP Executive Order to protect America from this existential threat for nearly 20 years. And President Trump’s excellent EMP Executive Order is a “whole of government” product involving coordination and concurrence by the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Energy, Intelligence Community, and other relevant departments and agencies.


Yet some press reporting implies President Trump’s EMP Executive Order was signed on a whim, citing ignorant, uninformed persons posing as “instant EMP experts” to belittle the president and the very real threat from EMP.


Curiously, the Washington Post refused to publish my article on the EMP Executive Order (and has refused to publish all of my over 100 articles on EMP submitted over the years), even though I served as chief of staff of the Congressional EMP Commission.


Yet the Post recently published “Trump Issued An Executive Order To Prepare For An EMP Attack. What Is It And Should You Worry?” (March 29, 2019) by four college students posing as “instant EMP experts” that includes numerous errors of fact and omission.


Readers of the Washington Post might be interested in the below corrections to errors by the college students:


STUDENTS: “Should you worry about EMPs? Probably not that much.”


EMP Commission: “The critical national infrastructure in the United States faces a present and continuing existential threat from combined-arms warfare, including cyber and manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, as well as EMP from a solar superstorm…Such an attack would give countries that have only a small number of nuclear weapons the ability to cause widespread, long-lasting damage to critical national infrastructures, to the United States itself as a viable country, and to the survival of a majority of its population.” (“Assessing the Threat from EMP Attack” July 2017)


STUDENTS: “Fortunately, there’s little concern about an EMP attack…because a nuclear EMP attack would be just that: a nuclear attack.”


CORRECTION: Military doctrine and planning of potential adversaries regard nuclear EMP attack as a dimension of cyber warfare because EMP damages electronics, is not directly injurious to people, and no blast, radioactive fallout, or other effects associated with a nuclear attack result from an EMP attack.


STUDENTS: “…deterrence makes it unlikely a nuclear EMP attack would happen in the first place.”


CORRECTION: Deterrence depends on knowing who executed the EMP attack, which can be made anonymously by launching from a freighter or orbiting a nuclear-armed satellite among the hundreds already in orbit. EMP can destroy National Technical Means upon which the U.S. relies for threat assessment.


STUDENTS: “Nor is it likely an EMP attack could be used to prevent U.S. retaliation, as our nuclear infrastructure is already designed to withstand such an attack.”

Read the rest of the article at the link.

Sergeant Gleed
04-11-2019, 11:02 AM
That's nice.

Scientists et cetera have been demanding an EO for decades, huh?

Seems to me that it's the Congress that is supposed to allocate funds for such a thing...

...and, more precisely, it's the electric power companies who owe their customers a properly functioning electric grid no matter what the weather on the sun might be.


And the home owner bears the burden of hardening his home again inclement electrons, doesn't he?

MisterVeritis
04-11-2019, 11:08 AM
That's nice.
Scientists et cetera have been demanding an EO for decades, huh?
Seems to me that it's the Congress that is supposed to allocate funds for such a thing...
...and, more precisely, it's the electric power companies who owe their customers a properly functioning electric grid no matter what the weather on the sun might be.

And the home owner bears the burden of hardening his home again inclement electrons, doesn't he?
We could completely deregulate the power companies. Instead they are massively, fascistically regulated by governments at every level. The power companies will take no actions not approved if not directed by the government.

Tahuyaman
04-11-2019, 11:14 AM
President signs EO over protecting the grid from EMPs / solar flares (https://www.newsmax.com/peterpry/electromagnetic-pulses-trump-executive-order/2019/04/08/id/910677/#ixzz5kWk3nzdH)

I haven't seen the EO or what it is based on. But this article is a counter-argument to a group of college students who say the EO is not necessary.



Read the rest of the article at the link.

EMP is a legit threat. It might not be an imminent threat, but if we can develop an effective means to prevent its effects, we should do so.

Peter1469
04-11-2019, 01:27 PM
EMP is a legit threat. It might not be an imminent threat, but if we can develop an effective means to prevent its effects, we should do so.

We should. The House has passed bills for this several times since the first EMP commission. It never gets out of the Senate.

FindersKeepers
04-11-2019, 01:53 PM
I'm not an expert by any means, but I think the kids are wrong. They're limiting the scenario to only nuclear EMPs, which, of course, would be devastating but it seems we're at risk from more than just the nuclear versions.


ELECTROMAGNETIC pulse weapons capable of frying the electronics in civil airliners can be built using information and components available on the net, warn counterterrorism analysts.
All it would take to bring a plane down would be a single but highly energetic microwave radio pulse blasted from a device inside a plane, or on the ground and trained at an aircraft coming in to land.


https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227026-200-aircraft-could-be-brought-down-by-diy-e-bombs/

It appears they can also be caused by strong solar storms.


Simply put, an EMP is a strong pulse of electromagnetic energy with the power to disable or even destroy electronics over a wide geographic area. Such an effect could come from high-altitude detonation from a nuke or from natural disturbances caused by solar storms.


https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a23196/texas-emp-defense/

In light of that, it seems only prudent that we take steps to protect not just the grid but other things -- like airplanes -- as well.

Captdon
04-11-2019, 02:30 PM
How do we protect a country from it? Serious question.

Sergeant Gleed
04-11-2019, 02:47 PM
We could completely deregulate the power companies. Instead they are massively, fascistically regulated by governments at every level. The power companies will take no actions not approved if not directed by the government.

California passed a re-regulate deregulation bill and the colluded with the power companies to arrange brown outs only in Sacramento where the state assembly goons congregate and enact a bill re-regulate get the already re-reulgulated power industry, just to raise prices.

MisterVeritis
04-11-2019, 02:55 PM
California passed a re-regulate deregulation bill and the colluded with the power companies to arrange brown outs only in Sacramento where the state assembly goons congregate and enact a bill re-regulate get the already re-reulgulated power industry, just to raise prices.
Nearly all of the problems faced by people due to the power companies are because of the many layers of government.

Sergeant Gleed
04-11-2019, 02:55 PM
How do we protect a country from it? Serious question.

Furst?

Ask everyone responding to the 2020 census if they are US citizens and how many other citizens reside at that address. It's the mist constitutional of the questions on the census.

Right above that question should be the warning that providing false information is a felony.

Then submit the census data to ICE, which will then cross check each resolppnse against DMV records, birth records, tax records, bank records, school records, criminal records, military records, Medical records and the like to see who lie prosecute the liars. Arrest them at their place of work or their college campus.

Permit only the heads of citizens to count for congressional apportionment. Declare that for purposes of apportionment non-cjtizens count as 0 fifths of a person. If they don't like it they can leave.

The step to be performed concurrently is to arrest the sedition it's engaged in sanctuary city treason. Because they are technically in rebellion, deny them habeas corpus and hold them in jail until we get around to giving them a trial.

Sergeant Gleed
04-11-2019, 02:55 PM
Nearly all of the problems faced by people due to the power companies are because of the many layers of government.

I don't know why you bothered to put the words "due to the power companies" in there.

MisterVeritis
04-11-2019, 02:57 PM
I don't know why you bothered to put the words "due to the power companies" in there.
LOL

...because we are discussing protecting the electrical grid.

Captdon
04-11-2019, 04:05 PM
Furst?

Ask everyone responding to the 2020 census if they are US citizens and how many other citizens reside at that address. It's the mist constitutional of the questions on the census.

Right above that question should be the warning that providing false information is a felony.

Then submit the census data to ICE, which will then cross check each resolppnse against DMV records, birth records, tax records, bank records, school records, criminal records, military records, Medical records and the like to see who lie prosecute the liars. Arrest them at their place of work or their college campus.

Permit only the heads of citizens to count for congressional apportionment. Declare that for purposes of apportionment non-cjtizens count as 0 fifths of a person. If they don't like it they can leave.

The step to be performed concurrently is to arrest the sedition it's engaged in sanctuary city treason. Because they are technically in rebellion, deny them habeas corpus and hold them in jail until we get around to giving them a trial.

I was asking about the subject- EMP. If I anted garbage I'd ask for garbage.

Peter1469
04-11-2019, 06:04 PM
I'm not an expert by any means, but I think the kids are wrong. They're limiting the scenario to only nuclear EMPs, which, of course, would be devastating but it seems we're at risk from more than just the nuclear versions.


https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227026-200-aircraft-could-be-brought-down-by-diy-e-bombs/

It appears they can also be caused by strong solar storms.


https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/research/a23196/texas-emp-defense/

In light of that, it seems only prudent that we take steps to protect not just the grid but other things -- like airplanes -- as well.
Yes, very strong solar storms could destroy our electronics. And extreme ones could burn off the atmosphere.

Peter1469
04-11-2019, 06:06 PM
How do we protect a country from it? Serious question.
Rebuild the grid to withstand such events. Lacking that build replacement parts and protect them- ready to go if needed. The massive transformers that support the grid have a led time of a year or two to build. Then you have to get them to the US (we don't make them). Hospitals and nuclear power plants, etc. can have much more spare fuel on hand to run emergency generators should such events occur. A lot more.

FindersKeepers
04-12-2019, 04:45 AM
Rebuild the grid to withstand such events. Lacking that build replacement parts and protect them- ready to go if needed. The massive transformers that support the grid have a led time of a year or two to build. Then you have to get them to the US (we don't make them). Hospitals and nuclear power plants, etc. can have much more spare fuel on hand to run emergency generators should such events occur. A lot more.

I think these are all good ideas. From what I understand, the vital parts that are susceptible to EMPs could be protected by casing that blocks electro-magnetic exposure, ostensibly deflecting the damage. We can see the devastating effect of not having electricity just by looking at recent events in Venezuela so I think it makes sense to take steps to protect our grid.

Peter1469
04-12-2019, 04:54 AM
I saw another article that Puerto Rico shows an EMP event would not be as bad as the EMP Commission says. But the US was able to bring aid and reconstruction to PR. What if the entire US were effected?

Captdon
04-13-2019, 09:14 AM
Rebuild the grid to withstand such events. Lacking that build replacement parts and protect them- ready to go if needed. The massive transformers that support the grid have a led time of a year or two to build. Then you have to get them to the US (we don't make them). Hospitals and nuclear power plants, etc. can have much more spare fuel on hand to run emergency generators should such events occur. A lot more.

I guess I'm asking how you protect them?

Peter1469
04-13-2019, 09:20 AM
I guess I'm asking how you protect them?
1. Harden the grid to withstand EMPs and solar flares.
2. Build and store in protected sites the critical parts with very long lead-times to build and replace.
3. Increase safety measures for emergency energy at critical sites such as nuclear power plants and hospitals.