There’s a good chance that electricity in Afghanistan will be shut off soon because the country owes its suppliers tens of millions of dollars and the Taliban has not paid the bill. (To no one’s surprise, administering a government is not the Taliban’s strong suit.)
In Lebanon, power went out around noon Saturday and the country-wide blackout is expected to last several days. The problem? No fuel. This is just the latest in a series of power outages caused by fuel shortage and local currency problems. They predicted it will be one of the longest the country has experienced. The fuel shortage is so bad that even individuals and businesses lucky enough to have a generator can’t find duel.
Regional or country-wide blackouts are nothing new in the third world, but are rare in the developed world. At least they were until now. As we head into winter, there are energy shortages in Europe and Asia. Supplies are tight and casts are rising in the U.S. as well
The reason? Over reliance on inconsistent solar and wind production, rising demand and costs for natural gas, and environmental regulations that have caused many coal-burning power producers to shut down. You can blame government regulations passed by liberals who made bad assumptions due to wishful thinking and a refusal to consider the unintended consequences. This was compounded by Biden’s executive orders limiting oil development and production in the U.S.
ZeroHedge just published an article stating that the stocks of fuel oil, which is used to heat 5.5 million households, are at their lowest level in 20 years. The threat of a power outage or heat outage this winter is real. It may not hit all of us, but I expect it will hit some of us. Fill those tanks!
Kerosene Heaters
I mentioned a specific brand of propane heaters in my recent post about staying warm. A few days later, I received an email promoting a sale on wood burners, pellet stoves, propane heaters, and kerosene heaters at Northern Tool and Equipment. This is not a sponsored link and I have never used this heater, but the Dyna-Glo Indoor Kerosene Convection Heater for $125 looks like a good model. It does not require electricity and is rated to heat 1,000 square feet.
It might be worth a look for those of you who need auxiliary heat and don’t already have propane on site. If you do go this route, better stockpile several 5-gallon Jerry cans of kerosene. It looks like it takes five gallons per day to run this heater on high.
