Federal Agency Blackout Puts Spotlight on Harry Reid: Will He Move Bipartisan Bill to Prevent Catastrophic Grid Takedown?

On Monday, December 15 the State Department suffered a power outage from a construction accident. The Office of Personnel Management, the Federal Reserve, the General Services Administration, the Labor Department, the FDIC, the U.S. Park Police and one Washington Metro stop were also blacked out by a blown transformer at the same time.

These incidents, while fortunately of limited impact and duration, nonetheless, underscore the interconnectedness and vulnerability of the electrical grid in ways that potentially imperil our nation’s survival and that of its people. They also underscore the need for corrective action – and the urgent requirement for the U.S. Senate to approve the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act (H.R. 3410) to catalyze it that was recently approved unanimously by the House of Representatives.

Besides the federal agencies’ blackout yesterday, the magnitude of our grid’s vulnerability has become dramatically apparent recently. Revelations in just the past few weeks include reports of:

• Cyber attacks on critical electrical infrastructure from Russia, known as Black Energy or Energetic Bear;
• Confirmation by National Security Agency Director Admiral Mike Rogers of China’s capability to shut down our grid;
• Evidence that Iranian hackers have successfully penetrated private electrical utility companies control systems for two years;
• The doctrines of these actual or potential U.S. enemies, as well as North Korea, include electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks that could seriously disrupt or destroy our grid by detonating a nuclear weapon high above the continental United States;
• Islamic State and al Qaeda threats to the grids of Australia and Yemen, respectively; and
• Official estimates that as many as 130 million Americans could be without power for years as a result of a solar storm (or Geomagnetic Disturbance) one-tenth the power of the most intense recorded coronal mass ejection to hit the earth, the Carrington Event of 1859 (which experts believe could reoccur at any time).

Informed by such evidence of the present and growing danger to the nation’s bulk power distribution system, the House passed H.R. 3410 on November [ ], 2014 mandating that the Department of Homeland Security develop a plan for protecting the grid against EMP and GMD, among other hazards. There is simply no excuse for the Senate to fail to adopt this legislation as well in the remaining days of the lame duck session and, thereby, allow this urgently needed plan to be completed at the earliest possible time.

The Center for Security Policy sponsors the Secure the Grid and its President, Frank J. Gaffney, Jr., noted:

The blackout of several important federal government facilities yesterday is a stark reminder that we are on borrowed time with respect to the imperative of protecting the nation’s electric grid.  Senator Harry Reid has it within his power to call up legislation unanimously approved by the House of Representatives two weeks ago – the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act – that would begin the process of securing the grid and the American people whose lives absolutely depend upon it.  The Senate should have no higher priority in the remaining days of this lame duck session than to permit the prompt enactment of HR 3410.

Secure the Grid Coalition members are available for comment on the electric grid’s susceptibility to severe solar weather events and other threats and what needs to be done to protect it against all hazards. More information can be found at www.securethegrid.com.