An Attack on Our Power Grid Would Be Devastating

Frank Gaffney recently spoke with Representative Lou Barletta of Pennsylvania on Secure Freedom Radio. Barletta is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

The focus of their conversation was the prospect of an attack on America’s power grid. The threat is very real and could come not only from a hostile enemy, but even from a strong solar flare. Such an event would be devastating because it could cause a significant part of the country to be without power for weeks.

As a former mayor, Barletta has some background in dealing with disaster scenarios so this topic is of particular interest to him. Gaffney asked him to speak about a recent congressional hearing on the subject:

“The first thing that came to my mind was how ready are we if there’s an attack, a cyber attack on our electrical grid if it comes combined with a physical attack and are we ready on the ground as mayors and supervisors? What does this mean?”

Gaffney asked if the hearing differentiated between a hostile cyber attack and an attack from the Sun. Barletta said that they focused on a cyber attack coupled with a physical attack and said the testimony from experts was disturbing:

“How long could we expect to be without power? Testimony we heard indicated that we would be measuring the power outage in weeks, not days. And I think that’s very interesting, you can imagine our waste water treatment services, our healthcare delivery, financial services, transportation. What can happen in a community if we’re talking about no power in a portion of our country, not just a community, a portion of our country for weeks?”

Barletta makes the point that many local community leaders are probably not prepared for this and that is would certainly result in a loss of life. He also made an excellent point that this isn’t like a storm which you know is coming and can prepare for. This is the sort of thing can happen at any instant and without warning of any kind.

Barletta also expressed concern that many people living in small towns and rural areas may not know what they need to do in order to be prepared for such an event and urged people to ask their local leaders if they are in fact ready for such a possibility.

Gaffney pointed out that utility companies claim to be prepared for such an event but that too much faith is placed in just hoping it never happens, concluding “Hope is not a strategy.”

Barletta agreed:

“How could anybody be ready on the ground at the local level if they didn’t know or don’t know how long to be prepared for?… They may say that we’re prepared but I believe we’ve got work to do yet.”