The apocalyptic vision of a world without electricity is nothing new. The idea that an enemy could detonate a nuclear blast in the air to create an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a concept that has brushed by our ears before. The potential destruction of the United States by an EMP attack is not something that only exists in the realm of science fiction, but with the players in the world that have been gaining nuclear technology, the possibility of an EMP being launched against the United States is a very feasible reality. Enemies like Iran, North Korea, China, Russia and any of a number of Islamic terrorist organizations with connections to any of those aforementioned players, have the means to knock out our entire power grid. These enemies have tested the possibilities, and have conducted practice runs regarding their capabilities.
A high-altitude burst EMP could damage electronic equipment, such as computers and communication equipment, in the area within line of sight of the blast. Equipment beyond the horizon would be largely unaffected. The ring of damage would be most damaging traveling in a U-shape toward the equatorial side of the nuclear detonation.
According to The Blaze Magazine, the threat of an EMP is very real, and there is a way for the United States to protect itself from such a horrific event. Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, a member of the Congressional EMP Commission and the executive director of the Task Force on National Homeland Security, issued some dire warnings in his testimony before Congress, warning about the dangers of an EMP from a single nuclear weapon detonated between 25 and 300 miles over the lower 48 states. He said that it would act like ten thousand lightning bolts and permanently knock out the nation’s entire electrical grid. Airplanes would fall from the sky; many cars would be inoperable. Water, sewer and electrical devices would fail simultaneously. Systems of banking, energy, transportation, food production, water, emergency services and even cyberspace would collapse. Nine out of 10 Americans would die due to starvation, disease and societal collapse.
An EMP would be an efficient weapon, rendering the population defenseless, while keeping the land habitable for an invading force. A simultaneous attack against Europe would ensure no aid would come into the United States, and the enemy would only need to wait patiently for most of the native population to die during the aftermath of the EMP.
Dr. Pry has testified that attempts to bring launchers and devices into the region has been attempted a number of times, and in one such instance, they caught the shipment at the Panama Canal, buried under a shipment of sugar.
With the Middle East and North Africa swarming with terrorist groups vying for control of a number of countries, and the support these organizations have been receiving from Russia, China, Pakistan, North Korea, and even the United States in some instances, these freely operating terrorists are coming together, from Iraq and Syria, to Yemen and Libya. They all have a common goal regarding the destruction of non-Muslim states (especially in The West), and if any of these groups were to get their hands on the weapons needed to launch an attack against Europe and the United States, they would not hesitate to use those capabilities.
The EMP Commission that Dr. Pry is a part of has come up with a plan to protect the United States against such an attack, if the legislatures and President are willing to put such a plan into place. Within a few years, says the commission, we could protect U.S. critical infrastructures from the worst effects of EMP. Protecting 300 of the most important high-energy transformers that are indispensable to the national power grid is estimated to cost $100-200 million. The plan would not protect our system completely, but the plan is estimated to be able to provide at least the absolute minimum necessary to create the possibility of saving millions of American lives in the event of an EMP.
The SHIELD Act, introduced by Congressman Trent Franks (R-AZ) and co-sponsored by Congresswoman Yvette Clarke (D-NY), would implement the most important recommendation of the EMP Commission. SHIELD would empower the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require the electric power industry to protect the national grid from EMP.
SHIELD would also require the industry to protect the grid by selective "hardening" of vital components by using surge arrestors, blocking devices, faraday cages, and other proven technologies that the Department of Defense has known for fifty years can reliably protect military systems from EMP.
With the dependency we have as a society on electricity, and electronic components, in our daily lives, coupled with the very real threat of an EMP that could very well be launched by a nuclear device on board an aircraft or high altitude balloon, a need for some kind of protection against an EMP, for the sake of common defense, is a necessary step for our protection as a nation. It is one of the constitutional tasks of the federal government to protect the States from invasion, provide for the common defense, and ensure that there is a sense of general welfare throughout the republic. Legislation regarding protections against an EMP attack resolves each of those constitutional requirements.
-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
Slouching Toward a Nuclear Blackout - The Blaze
Pass the SHIELD Act Now, before it's too late - Breitbart
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