Cognitive Dissonance or Culpable Ignorance?

• “The United States does not have a national grid, but a series of large regional power grids.” Joseph T. Kelliher, FERC Chairman, July 31, 2008
• “We need an interstate transmission superhighway system.” Suedeen G. Kelly, FERC Commissioner, quoted in NY Times, Aug. 26, 2008
• “The table has been set, with the election, for a thorough discussion in Congress … of a national grid, whatever that means.” FERC Commissioner Philip Moeller, Nov. 17, 2008

BOTH!

Updates

We have updated the articles page to include testimony given before the Hearings of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on 31 July 2008, as well as responses to questions from NM Sen. Pete Domenici about that testimony.

We have also updated the courses page with information on the Plain Talk Courses we offer through the IEEE Power and Energy Society.

We’re going to keep adding material and information in the coming weeks…

Feel free to look around, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to comment or send a direct email with the link in the sidebar.

Scotty?

Beam me up, Scotty…

“Such a system would be a high-capacity inter-regional network of high-voltage [345kV and higher] transmission lines that would augment but not supplant our existing lower-capacity networks…. Today, by comparison, we have some high-voltage lines in some areas, but they are not integrated into a network.”
Sec’y. of Energy Samuel Bodman, Sept. 24, 2008

“Al Gore group urges Obama to create U.S. power grid.”
Reuters, Nov. 6, 2008

“No truly national transmission grid currently exists…. ”
Manhattan Institute Report, Oct. 14, 2008

…there’s no intelligent life here…

RSS feeding time

Besides adding the blog to our website, you can also now subscribe to the blog via RSS feed, if you use Google Reader or even some of the RSS apps available for the iPhone, such as Gazette. Just one more way to stay in touch.

We’ve also added a nifty little widget on the sidebar where you can share the current page with your friends and colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Del.icio.us and even regular email, all with just a click of your mouse.

It’s not just a new coat of paint around here…

Running smoothly, at last…

Welcome to the new eLucem.com website. We’re still in the midst of a facelift; we’ve been online for twelve years, and it was about time for a fresh coat of paint. That and a more reliable server and webhost. If reliability is our watch word, our web service should be reliable as well, don’t you think?

Click around and see what’s new and what’s coming soon. This site is already optimized for the iPhone, and we’ve got more in store…

Blackout, the novel

New York City is threatened once again. In the midst of a local blackout, anomalies are found in two supposedly invulnerable computer systems. Is it merely a glitch? Or is it the work of terrorists planning a larger-scale blackout? Paul Benson, former Director of the Northeast Regional Transmission Organization, has been brought out of retirement to assist in the investigation. Working with Julie Esposito, a fellow engineer at NERTO, and his friend and mentor, Lew Walker, Benson discovers more than anyone bargained for. The three soon find themselves drawn into a complex web of malice, conspiracy and sabotage as they start making the connections between corrupt energy executives, organized crime, a disgruntled employee and a mysterious but powerful political figure.

The new server

Due to issues with our previous server and hosting company, we have shifted eLucem.com over to a new web hosting company.  If you can see this post, then all is well and the new site is coming through.

What this means is, there might be a hiccup in our receiving email, but nothing major after today.
The email is fine, didn’t skip a beat.

Another new feature is an optimized version of the site for viewing on iPhones and other mobile devices.  You won’t notice anything different when viewing the site on your computer, but it will automatically detect whether or not you’re using an iPhone and provide an optimized version of the site formatted for reading comfortably on the smaller screen.

Thank you for your patience.  We hope to have the site fully operational by November 4th.