Decentralization---is now the time for it?

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I think I understand the motives behind the centralization philosophy and the economic advantages for those who hold the centralized assets, but maybe its time to rethink some of this stuff, considering how disruptive ONE incident currently is.

The WTC incident could'a been ALOT worse. For example they could'a dive bombed a nuclear power plant, killing who knows how many people with the long lasting nuclear scar on the land and our national psyche. Or maybe they could'a flown a coupla those big aircraft into the hoover dam and breached the dam with massive flooding, tens of thousands of lost lives and billions in property damage downstream. These are just two worse case scenarios I can think of.

Disrupting major components of our infrastructure such as the two mentioned would send us into an economic tailspin like we hope to never see, not to mention the likely TENS OF THOUSANDS of lives lost. Like I say, it could'a been alot worse.

It occurs to me that maybe we, as a nation, should be seriously looking at decentralizing key components of our infrastructure, in particular electricity production and transportation fuel.

Both are doable now, with technology readily available and think about what a bitch it would be to seriously disrupt our national economy in such a scenario with many homes and businesses making their own electricity and making most of the transportation fuels right here in the USA.

Is it gonna happen? Doubtful. There's too many greedy big money players out there who would kaibosh the whole thing.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001

Answers

Absolutely, John....this has long been one of those issues that drives me nuts! It just seems like a no-brainer that such centralized power systems is a stupid stupid idea. Seems obvious to me they should have many small ones, working independently and as environmentally friendly as possible, with connections to others that could be used to buy or borrow electricity from neighboring systems during problem times. It would also be much easier to use solar, wind, etc on a smaller system than a huge one.

Yes, it IS about greed, and the way government sleeps with corporate America. I'm sure Wisconsinites on this forum are painfully aware of the ongoing such case in northern Wisconsin, how hard we fought against the mega-line they want to put through thousand of people's land to bring power from Canada to the mega-users of SE WI, or even IL. It looks like we lose again, thanks to Tommy Thompson and his buddies.

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001


Not to mention all the medical supply houseing which are located in major cities. Not to mention evacuating a major cities without creating terminal gridlock from everybody leaving at the same time. Not to mention that most oil refineries are located in key coastal cities. No mas, No mas.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

I work for a medical diagnostics manufacturing company. Many of our shipments to customers are temperature and time sensitive so they are sent via FedEx overnight delivery. During the WTC crisis we arranged for critical supplies to be shipped via truck to NYC and DC while flights were grounded. Some of our employees actually drove to various hospitals to deliver critical inventory. After the flight ban was lifted we chartered planes to deliver supplies so we could avoid the FedEx backlog. The medical manufacturing industry is now working with the federal government to develop a comprehensive plan for delivering medical supplies and blood in case of another crisis. Some of the money allocated in the anti-terrorism bill is funding this effort, as well as to beef up the labs at the CDC in case of biological attack.

-- Anonymous, October 09, 2001

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