Electrical Failure Outside New York City Shuts Down Amtrak: "Broad Disruption For Northeast Trains"

The other day I posted a new energy-related poll asking why folks thought Apple Inc had made the decision to rely completely on renewable energy, particularly solar energy. Apple Inc is co-locating solar farms next to their data farms. I asked, "why"?

It was a rhetorical question. I already knew the answer. I was curious what percent of MDW readership knew the correct answer.

Today, a front section article says it all. Remember: Apple Inc is building data centers in Oregon, California, North Carolina, and elsewhere (I suppose) for cloud computing. Failure is not an option. so this article in today's WSJ explains why Apple has made the decision to with its own solar energy.

A power failure outside New York City could disrupt some Amtrak service in the Northeast for up to three weeks, government officials said Wednesday.

The failure of a high-voltage feeder line in Mount Vernon, N.Y., early Wednesday morning cut electric power to heavily traveled tracks shared by Amtrak and the Metro-North commuter railroad. A second feeder line was already out of service for a repair project when the first one failed.

Both railroads scrambled to supplement service with diesel locomotives, but they expected to have only a fraction of their normal capacity available for Thursday morning's rush hour. Metro-North's contingency plans include shuttle buses.

Without electricity for its overhead wires, Amtrak announced it would halt service on its Acela express trains between New York and Boston through Thursday. Regional trains will run between those two cities, but with expected delays of an hour or more.

This had nothing to do with the war on coal, but a few years from now it might.  Steve Jobs and Apple skate to where the puck will be. The "war on coal" and the deterioration of the nation's electrical grid is a 1-2 punch that Apple was a big enough of a concern for Apple to go its own way. Going solar was financially and politically the only option. Apple never would have gotten permits for its own fossil fuel power plants in today's political climate.