He may be referring to a possible Coronal Mass Ejection. We had one back in 1859. People saw the "northern lights" phenomenon as far south as Cuba, and it caused electrical and telegraph blackouts everywhere.
If a CME were to hit us hard, it could very well impact our magnetic field, and knock out electricity and permanently fry semi-conductors. I've heard an argument for large possibility of this happening in early 2009.
Might this be what he is talking about?
