Power outages are rare here in the Tucson area -- for now. However, I work in the power industry and behind the scenes it's overall nothing short of a volcano waiting to erupt. My consulting work takes me to power utilities all across the country and into generation plants, substations, and control centers. There are influential people and organizations in our country who seemingly have no clue what it actually takes to generate reliable, affordable electric power. They don't understand the physics or the logistics involved and they think the electric grid can run off of pink unicorn farts. As a result we, as a country, are walking on a tightrope with no more safety net and evil leprechauns are shaking the wire, trying to make us fall. I wouldn't classify myself as a "prepper"; rather, more of a realist. I'm all for "green" energy, by the way -- but the way the activists and politicians are trying to implement it is positively insane and will lead to rolling blackouts -- or worse. And on top of all that are the growing cyber security threats (that's my direct line of work) that our power utilities are having an enormous amount of difficulty keeping up with. It's a bad scene that's only masked by the fact that the lights are still on.