Good Opportunity For Dems To Couple The Massive Power Outages With Upgrade To Electrical Grid & Jobs

[global1]

for the Dems. With the millions of people out of electric on the east coast and midwest - this is a good opportunity for the President and Dems to talk about upgrading the electrical grid and maybe putting in underground wires to minimize and prevent future power outages to the extent that we are suffering today. Such a program would put a lot of people to work on the electrical infrastructure and have a two prong effect - upgrading the electrical infrastructure and putting people to work. The economy would be the beneficiary.

If the Repugs voted against anything like this - they would piss off a lot of people that are suffering without electricity, AC and a well stocked refrigerator/freezer.

The Dems could capitalize on this right now.

[NYC_SKP]

1. Smart grid, smart meters, tons more wind and solar, could put everyone to work...

K/R

[global1]

2. President Obama Should Get Out In Front Of This Tomorrow.....

it would expose the Repugs for what they are - it would show that their reason is to (as Mitch McConnell said) make Obama a one term President - and not to do their elected job of helping the American People.

This would really put the Repugs in a bind. They couldn't vote down such a job bill to fix the electrical grid and think that they would walk away without some backlash by the people that are suffering through this oppressive heat.

[msongs]

3. now that is funny....get out in front is not his style nt

[lonestarnot]

8. No shit! But only if you live out of the country. Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement

[NYC_SKP]

12. Fuck that Shit, lonestarnot!!!

The TPP is a TOTAL GIVEAWAY to corporations and the final nail in the coffin of the middle class....

Don't you think?



How ya doin?

[lonestarnot]

13. I think I fell out shortly after I posted that last night. Damn straight it's a corp. giveaway.

A Nation Article set to publish soon. Saw a glimpse of it earlier today, but to busy to read anything. Doing well considering, how bout you NYC_Skip? I guess I should look for it now.

[vademocrat]

4. Also to discuss deregulation - and the free market -

here in VA, losing our lights with every heavy wind is as much a business decision as anything else. Dominion Power has cut back on maintenance - both in infrastructure and things like tree trimming around power lines - for years now with the attitude that they'll fix it when it breaks.

[Wounded Bear]

6. Ding, ding, ding....

correlate where privatization and power outages occur together and hammer the supply siders/privatizers with it.

[vademocrat]

9. Doesn't even have to be total privatization - lax oversight and watered down regulations leave us

thinking we still have a regulated company - when they aren't actually being regulated beyond a wink, wink nudge, nudge...
Technically, Dominion VA Power is regulated by the state but the regulations have definitely been eased during the 2000s -

[Zalatix]

5. I don't get why this hasn't happened already...

[lonestarnot]

7. Of course they could, the good ones will. The infiltrators do not believe in climate change.

[HopeHoops]

10. Agreed. I'm fortunate in that we rarely lose power under any circumstances.

We live right under the high-tension wires that lead to our substation and all of our residential wires are underground. It takes a lot to shut down our electricity, well, other than not paying the bill.

[Leopolds Ghost]

11. According to WaPo, the mass outages happened because of Global Warming

Of course they were not allowed by their editors to say so, or even mention the words global warming (WaPo is partly owned by oil and believes global warming is not proven) but they transposed an article on the rare meteorological phenomenon known as a "derecho" -- a 100-mile-long hurricane-like linear tornado, or freak thunderstorm -- caused by unprecedented ALL-TIME high temperatures in the eastern US. with an article on how Obama may (might) approve the Keystone XL pipeline to double world gasoline consumption and end the US commitment to mass transit once and for all. A solid majority of US citizens support doing so. They want to bring on the heat death of the planet so that they can continue to engage in an orgy of consumption even during a period of economic blight.

[ljm2002]

14. They did use the term "climate warming"...

...in this article on the freak storm:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-weather-gang/post/derecho-behind-washington-dcs-destructive-thunderstorm-outbreak-june-29-2012/2012/06/30/gJQA22O7DW_blog.html?hpid=z1

As the intensity of the heat wave, without reservation, was a key factor in the destructiveness of this derecho event - it raises the question about the possible role of manmade climate warming (from elevated greenhouse concentrations). It’s a complicated, controversial question, but one that scientists will surely grapple with in case studies of this rare, extraordinary event.

It's really an excellent article, and I was surprised that they ended it with the above. A good sign, I think. Even though they had to couch it as "a complicated, controversial question" -- at least they didn't ignore it.

[Leopolds Ghost]

15. Yes, and the juxtaposition with the splash-article on Keystone / Arctic oil was especially telling

And informative -- I used it to explain to a family member who hadn't realized the extent of damage we were doing to the Arctic. I once vacationed in Canada as a kid, and the pristine wilderness is the stuff that sits on top of the glacial sand dunes, which look like tennis court because of all the tar balls in the sand. Getting it up entails removing the entire top layer of the earth. It's the sort of thing that inspired this horrible grimdark science fiction story

But you can tell that the article on the freak weather conditions ended after that sentence on "climate warming".

It's almost as if the journalist wanted to go on and write a news analysis article connecting the two stories and the editors said,



It probably would have been an award-winning juxtaposition if they had dared to connect the two.

[XemaSab]

16. You think the dems are going to do anything?