News Analysis

Background:
I recently read an article by Matt Egan of Fox Business News. The article describes the discusses the possibility that another major blackout could occur even after the changes made since the 2003 Blackout. The 2003 Blackout is considered the worst blackout in United States history effecting 50 million people and costing 4-10 billion dollars. the root cause of the blackout was due to an overgrown tree causing a fault on a transmission line, and human error. Once the line was out of service a cascading effect occurred taking three 345kV lines, a coal fire plant, and nuclear plant all out of service in about 9 seconds.

Government Involvement:
Shortly after the blackout FERC (Federal Energy Reliability Committee) appointed NERC (North American Electric Reliability Committee) to regulate power utilities to prevent further incidents. NERC's involvement has been quite successful, since 2003 there have been very few major disturbances in the nation's power grid. Although, with increasing severe weather patterns and the rise of cyber terror attacks we could be heading down a rocky road.

Analysis of the Article:
I found the author of this article to be quite credible. When explaining the power grid and related information, the author frequently relies on Massoud Amin, a professor from the University of Minnesota in electrical engineering. In matters of National Security from cyber attacks on the grid, the author uses Frank Cilluffo, former Homeland Security adviser during the Bush administration, and James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence. while analyzing the articles content I found the author made a fairly logical argument in determining the probability of a major power disturbance, and only struck a little emotional content when talking about cyber terrorism, which could be used to evoke a small amount of fear.

Source:http://www.foxbusiness.com/government/2013/08/15/10-years-later-could-epic-blackout-happen-again/