Editor,

The present drive toward an all-electric country is as much a major national security issue as is our wide open southern border. The U.S. electric grid consists of 450,000 miles of transmission lines in the East and West Coast power grids that supply more than 140 million customers of industry, business and residences.

For many reasons, blackouts or power outages occur all the time and many are quickly resolved. There have been nine major disruptions in the nations power supply since 1965 due to hurricanes, lightning, human error and excessive overload that have lasted for days, even weeks.

Bearing that in mind, federal and state governments are single-mindedly pushing for an all-electric country to eliminate reliable fossil fuels and combat climate change. Electricity is a big, big part of our daily lives; we charge computers, cell phones, cook with, heat water, watch TV, light our homes, charge EVs, and more. We have come to comfortably rely on a stable, adequate source of electricity. Our country has many enemies who wish to destroy or cripple us severely. Our southern border is essentially no border, one that politicians decline to close and not only refugees cross but also those from those countries that wish us harm.

Our entire electric grid is wide open and vulnerable to sabotage and destruction. It is unguarded, transmission lines run through remote areas and power substations are often also in remote areas and it wouldn’t take much sabotage to wreak havoc on our country and bring everything electric to a complete standstill. This tunnel vision march to everything electric needs to be moderated. Fossil fuels provide low priced energy far less open to massive attacks.

Natural gas is a clean source of energy to heat homes, water, cook with and even generate necessary electricity and should not be eliminated in favor of everything electric. Wind and solar are unreliable when the wind doesn’t blow, the sun isn’t shining on panels or are covered in snow. These sources are also open and very vulnerable. Electricity storage is another problem with wind and solar. The massive usage increase in an all-electric country would make electric bills soar and ensure blackouts due to demand.

All electric is putting all our eggs in one basket. An enemy need not invade or bomb us, just surreptitiously attack our grid, create major blackouts, and bring everything to a standstill. In the quest to save the planet we must also realize that an all-electric utopia is not in our best interests for safety and security of our country and its citizens.

Ed Hickey

Oak Harbor