The blackout in the …

The blackout in the northeast USA is going to cause some heads to roll, no doubt about it. A talking head on FOX News said that likely the worst thing happened at the worst possible moment. That’s all well and good, but isn’t that what we’re supposed to be prepared for?

In any event, what concerns me is that somehow this will be the impetus for someone to decide that the whole power grid now has to report directly to Tom Ridge at HomeSec. I hope that doesn’t happen. These guys and gals need to make sure this doesn’t happen again, to be sure, but we don’t need more and more government bureaucracy in an age when we have to react quickly to changing circumstances.

Decentralization is the best answer. What are the feds saying? “Listen to your local agencies/police/government for information.” That’s the right answer. Local solution to local problems. Some may say that the electric grid is a national issue and should be run by the feds. I’d say this is a state issue, and there are perfectly good brains at the state level to deal with this, and work with other states. If you want to blame the states for the blackout as a reason to give it to the feds, I’d have to say that removing the decision-making farther and farther from the problem is no solution at all. Let the folks who already have accountability for this get called on that accountability, and then fix it. Don’t give their responsibility to overworked, overbloated and far away federal bureaucrats.

The lights are already starting to come back on, albeit slowly. My folks in upstate NY are hearing on their (battery) radio that the lights in Syracuse are starting to come on in spots. (And The Command Post has noted my E-mail to them concerning this. Nifty!)

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