r/PoliticalDiscussion • u/Tliish • 10h ago
Legislation Is our energy distribution model a danger to national security?
Specifically, the one-to-many model developed in the 1930s? Central power planta with distribution lines radiating out to every home and business? Is that still efficient and safe? It made absolute sense then and throughout the 20th century because there were no alternatives. But does it still make sense today?
The increasing cost of energy is a prime issue that directly effects everyone, but are those expensive prices a symptom of obsolescence? Is the real energy issue facing us the archiac one-to-many model that has become dangerously obsolete, and trying to prop it up gets more expensive every year, while it gets more dangerous and unreliable every yea?. It was a good way...the only way...to electrify the country in the 1930s, but it isn't working well anymore. Every weather-related disaster results in the loss of power to hundreds of thousands of people, with more effected every passing year. The cumulative daily productivity losses to businesses and the citiizenry are staggering., far beyond the direct damage storms do.
The worst part is that they are avoidable. As the atmosphere gains heat energy, it translates into higher wind speeds in addition to its fire dangers. Those higher wind speeds are exceeding the capacity of distribution lines to withstand them. We need to reduce reliance upon them.
Is a governmental intervention required in the form of a major push subsidizing the conversion to solar power...and most definitely NOT via solar farms that preserve the one-to-many models, with its dangers of an expensively decaying distribution network? Should Instead the push be for rooftop solar, home battery storage, and community-based backu, with a minimum goal as complete energy independence as possibl;e for all residential purposes?
The old fossil fuel powerplants can then supply the data centers, hospitala and heavy industry...and all other heavy demand entities...moving away from relying upon providing residential power supply, reducing the number of overhead distribution lines.
It is a matter of national security to prevent regional blackouts and prevent damage to the national economy. Regional blackouts are far more dangerous in an unstable world, too tempting and too easy to attack the country during such a period with cyber attacks on the remaining regional power grids, or via sleeper cells of terrorists or enemies vs targets of opportunity. Even without outside threats considered, climate change is creating more bad situations more frequently, and the longer it takes to recover the more damage is done to the economy. If every home was energy independent with backup, it would free up repair crews to restore their power far more quickly at lower costs. Every day shaved from major outages is a day less drag on the economy. And that isn't even considering the benefits to the citizenry. It would also help mitigate the CO2 problems a bit.
So is investing in energy independence and resilience a good choice?