Obama’s energy chairman paints rifles a ‘terrorist threat’ for Bloomberg group

Rifles, even .22 caliber models many young people receive as their first gun, are “among the greatest threats to the reliability of the nation’s power system,” U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff claimed at a Tuesday Bloomberg Government Breakfast, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Citing “inadequately protected” transformers as easy targets, Wellinghoff told the group that terrorists in "coordinated" actions committed to destroying them “could get 200 yards away with a .22 rifle and take the whole thing out.”

His proposed solution, a “couple hundred bucks” of “metal sheeting to block the view of transformers” hardly seems comprehensive, realistic, or even sober or sane when his further assertion that it will keep people from seeing through fences presupposes the entire perimeter must be covered. That would seem to be a very expensive proposition, especially when multiplied by the thousands of utility substations throughout the U.S. And it’s not like ladders aren’t plentiful enough.

Here is how to do it. Put the .22 round in sabots and mount the result in a .50 cal cartridge. Rechamber the rifle so it will accept the .50 cal cartridge and plink away. The effective range goes up to about 1000 yards and is useful against lightly armored vehicles out to 200 yards.

Was thinking along these lines but who has the machinery and skill to do so? Not many really and there's few machinists that would consider doing this for a kid with his new 22. May as well just buy a fifty cal and some high grain ammo and be done with it. But I'm not much a rifle junky anymore so maybe it would be cheaper your way.

Once again Bloomberg is full of spit and talks a good UN line but really is not a gansta with his mach 10 and 9mm handgun more of a problem killing people than some kid with a 22 considering some anarchy blowing up a transformer and watching all the pretty sparks before the lights go out? You'd THINK this guy would consider the incredible amount of illegal weaponry from gangs more so than some kid that's more prone to killing a few critters, bottles and cans.

signed old fogy that had a 22 back when

IMHO earthen berms constructed around these vulnerable transformers might offer better bullet protection, and heck if you stuck a few metal rods in them, you might even get decent lightening protection as well. But, what would I know, I’m not a highly trained government engineer.

Sounds like some miniscule branch of the government is dreaming up some non-existent threat, so as to get funding from the DHS teet, to fix a problem that doesn’t exist, or at least to give this “problem” “futher study” status.

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