December 7, 2006
Dear Steve,
Good Morning. Hope you slept well.
The story about Guinea's power woes is dead on. This is exactly how it works. Everything in our modern lives revolves around the availability of energy. You can overthrow a government by taking away the power of a given country. Believe me when I tell you that this matter is not overlooked by the Pentagon and intelligence agencies.
If your power goes out.....and stays out for days, you start to think that the boneheads in office can't even keep the power on and its time for a change. This has actually happened.....many times.
Energy can be further broken down into petroleum. Without oil....everything stops. Energy costs (kilowatt hour) are indeed fixed by the state boards and would not be able to raise that price without a vote, but there is a flexible "energy charge" in this country that allows them to pass on the additional fuel charges to the consumer. We will soon see how the cost of fuel impacts our power bill. The next upward slope of fuel prices (now starting, but very slowly) I expect to go to $4.00/gallon (due to some terrible "terrorist event" that will severely impact fuel distribution). That will absolutely cripple the lower income families and stretch the average income homes to the limit (I don't like the common "lower class and "middle class" titles normally applied).Society will begin to breakdown as depicted in the article. People will be walking to work.....until they lose their jobs because the businesses won't be able to meet expenses. It will be a slow, painful downward spiral. Only economy cars will be on the road. If you need a service that requires a truck....sit down before they hand you the bill. Over the road truck transit will become prohibitively expensive and reserved for the absolute essentials, but won't keep up with demand. Food will become tremendously expensive......probably six to eight times what it is now, due to higher transportation costs and security costs (the trucks will need security escorts, as will the stores).
What little gasoline makes it to market will be rationed, with preference given to those that are needed to maintain society to some degree (teachers, hospital staff, police, etc.). People will lose their jobs because they can't get to work. Businesses will fail because their workforce can't get there. I've seen this happen in third world countries. Businesses actually buy buses so that they can get their workforce to work. It's the only way they can get their products available to market. They cut back to 3-12 hour shift per week to save fuel cost for the transportation.
All of this, and much more, is coming to a country near you.
Electrical power will become a rare and valuable commodity. Generators won't help since they need fuel......and fuel will be scarce and expensive. Fuel cells would be good, but their cost is out of reach for most consumers. Solar power is optimum, but also costly. Wind power is quite reasonably priced, but not silent like fuel cells and solar power. Ideally, you would have a mixture of solar and wind power, since it is typically more windy at night. You'd need a brake switch on the wind turbine to stop it when you need it to be silent. Illness will be widespread due to the lack of refrigeration. It's just not going to be pretty. The country will unravel. Crime will explode. You will be on your own. My fear is that very few people have thought this through. I have. My solar power was designed so I don't have to worry about running out of power. It works very well. I have spare parts. I'll have refrigeration....and lights.....and power for my radios.....heat....ventilation.....etc. I use it for electric heat and hot water, but sparingly.
The most basic solar power system will cost around $3,000.....and it is basic. Four deep cycle batteries, a cheap inverter ($200 from Costco), two 100 watt panels and a $30 charge controller. This would give you enough power to run a small refrigerator and a few lights. It would also allow you to charge batteries for your shortwave radio and other small appliances like lanterns, weather stations, etc.
Access to power is, in my opinion, right up there with food and water for survival requirements. It will make life bearable......while we wait for the Lamb of God to come!!!
God Bless!!!
BT