Judge Jeanine Pirro uttered a grim warning to America during a Sunday show on Fox News . According to Pirro, the overly-tax and vulnerable nature of the power grid puts the country in danger from a massive disaster which would be “a million times worse than 9/11.”
During the Justice with Judge Jeanine show the Fox News host posed this question to the audience, “Who of us could ever envision a 9/11 happening?” Judge Pirro went on the state that the difference between a power grid down scenario and a 9/11 style attack is basically that we know that such a scenario is likely coming and the federal government is doing nothing to prevent it.
Judge Jeanine Pirro went on to say this about an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack or natural disaster that takes down the power grid in the United States:
“Even a blue ribbon congressional commission predicted a major catastrophe with mass American fatalities. Private companies that control 85 percent of the grid think the Department of Defense should pay to improve the infrastructure and vice versa.”
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , the SHIELD Act has bi-partisan support but has been stalled in Congress for many years. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) graded all of the major infrastructure in the US before the end of 2013. The power grid barely garnered a passing grade. The overall rating of our antiquated electrical system was a D+. Major power outages in the United States have grown from 76 in 2007 to 307 in 2011, according to the latest available statistics. The major outage figures do not take into account all of the smaller outages which routinely occur due to seasonal storms.
The ASCE power grid grade card rating means the energy infrastructure is in “poor to fair condition and mostly below standard, with many elements approaching the end of their service life.” It further means a “large portion of the system exhibits significant deterioration” with a “strong risk of failure.”
The majority of the United States’ infrastructure and public systems evaluated by the ASCE earned a “D” rating. A “C” ranking (public parks, rail and bridges) was the highest grade earned. It would take a total of $3.6 trillion in investments by 2020 to fix everything, the report card stated. To put that number in perspective, the federal government’s budget for all of 2012 was slightly more, $3.7 trillion.
Former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano appears to agree with Judge Jeanine Pirro’s power grid assessment. Napolitano called a cyber attack on the nation’s electrical system a matter of “if” and not “when.”
Do you think the federal government is taking power grid threats seriously enough?
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