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blue bits. red rocks.
Tuesday 4 September 2012
America’s Coming Infrastructure Disaster

More mega-blackouts are likely because hundreds of discrete local electric systems are being connected into three major electric grids—East, West, and Texas—that are more vulnerable to the massive shutdowns we saw in 2003.

Compounding this, the corporate monopolies that supply two thirds of America’s electricity have fired tens of thousands of linemen and other workers whose jobs were to maintain the grid.

Under the banner of deregulation, the monopolies that supply electricity, water, gasoline, natural gas, and Internet access have been hollowing out the privately owned infrastructure on which modern life and economic activity depend. Instead of putting more into maintenance, they have slashed budgets. At the same time, they earn phenomenal profits: up to 55 percent on their assets, eight times the average for all corporations.

Corporate monopolies that own railroad bridges, hydroelectric dams, and high-pressure pipelines have skimped on taking care of this infrastructure, putting lives and property across America at unnecessary risk from blackouts, collisions, and explosions, even the threat of entire towns being washed away by bursting dams.

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    Writing a bit of post-apocalyptic fiction and doing some of the research to write it properly has really been an...
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    This is one of the reasons you see companies like Google investing in alternative power generation technology. They want...
  21. welcometothepoopfactory reblogged this from azspot and added:
    And some laugh at my interest in “living off the grid”
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    Once again proving that not everything should make a profit. I believe Bill Maher said that about healthcare, but it...
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