Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

The notes for Chapter 4 appear on page 350 of this pdf.Chapter FourWhat Makes the EnergySystem Vulnerable?Most commercial fuels and power in the United States today are deliveredthrough a long, intricate chain of events and equipment. From mines inAppalachian hollows or Wyoming badlands, trains haul coal hundreds ofmiles to power plants. Arab and Alaskan oil is pumped perhaps a thousandmiles through pipelines over desert or wilderness.Tankers haul the oil out ofthe Arctic or halfway around the globe, and deliver it to refineries and tankfarms occupying hundreds of acres. The concentrated, high-quality refinedproducts and natural gas move another thousand miles or so via elaboratenetworks of pipelines, barges, ships, trains and trucks. Electricity moves hundredsof miles through sophisticated transmission lines. All these processesdepend on massive, highly capital-intensive, long-lead-time facilities which areextremely complex, both technically and socially, and which operate continuouslyunder precise controls.In this structure lie the seeds of brittleness:• The energy systems’ components are complex, so they are prone to fail, andwhen they do, it is often hard to diagnose and fix them.• The components are organized in complex patterns, so they may interactwith each other in complicated ways which are not always well understood.• The components are subject to unexpected, unpredictable disturbances fromoutside.• These disturbances may cause sudden system-wide failure on a massive scale.• The proper functioning of the whole system is profoundly important topeople’s well-being, to social cohesiveness, and to national survival.Because the energy system is familiar and usually dependable, one is30