The winter storm this week ranged from Arkansas to Maine.  Some areas had ice storms with major power outages.  The utility companies estimate hundreds of thousands of people will be without power for a week, perhaps several weeks.

It seems like every there is a sizable storm it results in catastrophic grid failure. 


Power outages exceeding 24 hours were almost unheard of until this decade.  Long-term outages only happened in natural disasters, such as Hurricane Andrew. 

The most significant weather event in my childhood was the Blizzard of '78.  This was a bona-fide blizzard, not just a storm, with sustained high winds, bone-chilling temperatures, several feet of snow, and snow drifts as high as houses.  It was like a frozen hurricane!  In southern New Hampshire we lost power for barely three days.  I do believe there were longer outages on the coast because of storm surge.  The point is we were horrified.  The nation was horrified.  The storm was in the first week of February and people were still talking about it in June!  It was only a couple of months ago that residents in some parts of Massachusetts were in the dark and cold for two weeks or more, and the media's all but forgotten about it.

Now it's happening again down South. 

Is our infrastructure falling apart?
???

i think it pretty much is. i hate to blame everything on reagan again, but since everything is pretty much his fault...

i mean before that both political parties understood that public-sector spending was a part of having a functioning society. laugh at the naivete of the newsreels and jam handy movies of the 40s up through the 70s, even conservative ideology had a sense of responsibility and an idea that if a nation is going to sustain itself, just in terms of the trains running on time and keeping the lights on, a vigorous public sector and a sense of collective responsibility were required. but when reagan came along, labeled all public spending "socialist" and basically gave the whole store away to private companies and sold everyone a bill of goods that you can just run around thinking about yourself and everything will magically work out, this ayn randian nightmare of his, we basically missed a whole generation of maintenance and upgrade on our electrical grid and the basic mechanics of our urban environment. because it was originally built very ruggedly it was able to last this long but now it's crumbling around us because everybody was running around engaging in free enterprise and market speculation and we all assumed someone else was taking care of it.

i honestly think the new president and the new congress might be able to turn this thing around, if they will finally realize the post-reagan, post-bush fools on the right have absolutely nothing to offer and stop trying to compromise with them. but the hour's growing late.

i think it pretty much is. i hate to blame everything on reagan again, but since everything is pretty much his fault...
I don't, and it is indeed!

i mean before that both political parties understood that public-sector spending was a part of having a functioning society. laugh at the naivete of the newsreels and jam handy movies of the 40s up through the 70s, even conservative ideology had a sense of responsibility and an idea that if a nation is going to sustain itself, just in terms of the trains running on time and keeping the lights on, a vigorous public sector and a sense of collective responsibility were required. but when reagan came along, labeled all public spending "socialist" and basically gave the whole store away to private companies and sold everyone a bill of goods that you can just run around thinking about yourself and everything will magically work out, this ayn randian nightmare of his, we basically missed a whole generation of maintenance and upgrade on our electrical grid and the basic mechanics of our urban environment. because it was originally built very ruggedly it was able to last this long but now it's crumbling around us because everybody was running around engaging in free enterprise and market speculation and we all assumed someone else was taking care of it.

i honestly think the new president and the new congress might be able to turn this thing around, if they will finally realize the post-reagan, post-bush fools on the right have absolutely nothing to offer and stop trying to compromise with them. but the hour's growing late.

Hey, Mike, you wanna be my spokesman?
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/12/headbang.gif

You see, only a paltry sum of the big Stim is slated to be invested in anything even related to infrastructure.  Since when did $100 billion become a paltry sum, the big number 1 trillion, and the Society of Civil Engineers recommends 2.2 trillion in upgrades in our in infrastructure.'

What did the monomaniacal Republicans want?

You guessed it, more tax cuts for the rich.  So said Sen. John Boehner...whose heroes are Alexander Hamilton...and George Hamilton!
:D

i think it pretty much is. i hate to blame everything on reagan again, but since everything is pretty much his fault...

i mean before that both political parties understood that public-sector spending was a part of having a functioning society. laugh at the naivete of the newsreels and jam handy movies of the 40s up through the 70s, even conservative ideology had a sense of responsibility and an idea that if a nation is going to sustain itself, just in terms of the trains running on time and keeping the lights on, a vigorous public sector and a sense of collective responsibility were required. but when reagan came along, labeled all public spending "socialist" and basically gave the whole store away to private companies and sold everyone a bill of goods that you can just run around thinking about yourself and everything will magically work out, this ayn randian nightmare of his, we basically missed a whole generation of maintenance and upgrade on our electrical grid and the basic mechanics of our urban environment. because it was originally built very ruggedly it was able to last this long but now it's crumbling around us because everybody was running around engaging in free enterprise and market speculation and we all assumed someone else was taking care of it.

i honestly think the new president and the new congress might be able to turn this thing around, if they will finally realize the post-reagan, post-bush fools on the right have absolutely nothing to offer and stop trying to compromise with them. but the hour's growing late.



I really want to give you karma for this but I am resisting.  ;)


Anyway, that is WELL SAID!!! Let me know when you are off of your "don't give me karma" bit and I will give the one I owe you for this.



Cat

I really want to give you karma for this but I am resisting.  ;)
well you might as well, now.  :\'(

thanks for the kind words. i'm rather exercised about the subject, i tell ya.

well you might as well, now.  :\'(

thanks for the kind words. i'm rather exercised about the subject, i tell ya.



Ok, just karmaed you. (Didn't know karma was a verb, did ya?  ;) :D ;D ;D ) But, don't hate me for doing it-you told me to do it.



Cat

^I gave him one too  ;D

w00t! i'ma cut on reagan some more and i'll be at 1234 karma in no time! then i'll become a drooling, rabid neocon gasbag and i'll stay at 1234 forever!  8)

w00t! i'ma cut on reagan some more and i'll be at 1234 karma in no time! then i'll become a drooling, rabid neocon gasbag and i'll stay at 1234 forever!  8)


You're thinking small, how about shooting for 12345  ;D

Some states have definitely not kept up with infrastructure to the extent that they should, but in other cases, this is just a matter of suburbanization.

Urban sprawl is more pronounced in America than it's ever been.  The more we spread out as a population, the more demand that puts on our infrastructure.  If it's any consolation, America does have one of the most extensive and advanced power infrastructures in the world.  We cover more land with power grids than any other country.  We also cover more area with highways and telecommunication cables.

So, despite the blips we experience, we're actually doing pretty well considering our size.

Some states have definitely not kept up with infrastructure to the extent that they should, but in other cases, this is just a matter of suburbanization.

Urban sprawl is more pronounced in America than it's ever been.  The more we spread out as a population, the more demand that puts on our infrastructure.  If it's any consolation, America does have one of the most extensive and advanced power infrastructures in the world.  We cover more land with power grids than any other country.  We also cover more area with highways and telecommunication cables.

So, despite the blips we experience, we're actually doing pretty well considering our size.


Blips? Blips?  My man, that's cold comfort (N.P.I.) to those folks in that Kentucky icebox who might not have power for another month!
::)

Blips? Blips?  My man, that's cold comfort (N.P.I.) to those folks in that Kentucky icebox who might not have power for another month!
::)


Well, like I said, some states have not properly kept up their infrastructures.  It sounds like Kentucky needs to get its act together.

Well, like I said, some states have not properly kept up their infrastructures.  It sounds like Kentucky needs to get its act together.


Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, California, Florida, etc. etc.
::)

Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, California, Florida, etc. etc.
::)


Well, I think you'll find that most of these areas are rural.  The reliability of infrastructure decreases the further away you get from big cities.

i think it pretty much is. i hate to blame everything on reagan again, but since everything is pretty much his fault...

i mean before that both political parties understood that public-sector spending was a part of having a functioning society. laugh at the naivete of the newsreels and jam handy movies of the 40s up through the 70s, even conservative ideology had a sense of responsibility and an idea that if a nation is going to sustain itself, just in terms of the trains running on time and keeping the lights on, a vigorous public sector and a sense of collective responsibility were required. but when reagan came along, labeled all public spending "socialist" and basically gave the whole store away to private companies and sold everyone a bill of goods that you can just run around thinking about yourself and everything will magically work out, this ayn randian nightmare of his, we basically missed a whole generation of maintenance and upgrade on our electrical grid and the basic mechanics of our urban environment. because it was originally built very ruggedly it was able to last this long but now it's crumbling around us because everybody was running around engaging in free enterprise and market speculation and we all assumed someone else was taking care of it.

i honestly think the new president and the new congress might be able to turn this thing around, if they will finally realize the post-reagan, post-bush fools on the right have absolutely nothing to offer and stop trying to compromise with them. but the hour's growing late.


Note that in the majority of the country, as it has been pretty much since the beginning (before Reagan, before Roosevelt), the electric power infrastructure is owned and operated by private companies.  Yes, there are some cities in which the MUNICIPAL government owns the utilities but this is way into the minority of cases.  Then there is the TVA of course.

Are we suggesting that the Federal Government nationalize the power distribution industry? ???

Note that in the majority of the country, as it has been pretty much since the beginning (before Reagan, before Roosevelt), the electric power infrastructure is owned and operated by private companies.  Yes, there are some cities in which the MUNICIPAL government owns the utilities but this is way into the minority of cases.  Then there is the TVA of course.

Are we suggesting that the Federal Government nationalize the power distribution industry? ???
i misspoke on the power grid, obviously the issue there is more regulation than outright public ownership but there, too, there's obviously significant issues of lax oversight, c.f. the games enron played with the power grid in california. the private sector seems to typically do a fairly decent job of providing electricity but seeing as this service is a matter of profound national interest it's unwise to let them operate the system without significant regulation and oversight. free-market economists seem to be of the opinion that it will just take care of itself in the private sector, but this doesn't seem to be the case.