Koppel: cyber attack on grid just a matter of when

Former teevee host Ted Koppel has been an NPR contributor for decades and to pump his new book he sat today for an interview on The Diane Rehm Show. Koppel is convinced that an inevitable cyber attack on the US could take down the grid for days, even months causing food shortages and mayhem.

Ice storms routinely knock out electric power on reservations sometimes resulting in lost lives.

A college on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation will receive about $1 million in federal funding for a $2 million renewable energy project. The grant will be used to help install 636 kilowatts of solar power at five buildings at Sitting Bull College. Officials say the project should decrease short-term energy costs by 20 percent, saving about $74,000 a year. Standing Rock is one of 11 tribal communities slated to split up nearly $6 million in federal money for clean energy projects. The 3,600-square-mile reservation straddles the North Dakota-South Dakota border. [Associated Press]

Microgrid technologies are destined to enhance tribal sovereignty and free communities from electric monopolies.

After a century of exploitation Black Hills Corporation has announced a $70 million dollar cathedral to capitalism in occupied Rapid City.

Several utilities are based in South Dakota because of the state's regressive tax structure. Meanwhile, the state just raised taxes on those least pay to pay them...again.

Getting off the grid now has never been easier and net-metering only gives control to corporatists: just do it.