Four immediate, actionable steps needed now to begin securing the electric grid

DECISION BRIEF                                                                                                28 February 2022

’60 MINUTES’ MAKES THE CASE FOR GRID RESILIENCE;

BIDEN SHOULD COMMIT TO ASSURING IT DURING THE STATE OF THE UNION

Four Immediate, Actionable Steps Needed Now to Begin Securing the Electric Grid

In a shocking segment aired last night, CBS News’ 60-Minutes featured a powerful warning by Command Sergeant Major Michael Mabee, U.S. Army (Ret.) about the vulnerability of America’s most critical of critical infrastructures: its bulk power distribution system, better known as the electric “grid.” Mabee, a member of the Secure the Grid Coalition sponsored by the Center for Security Policy, revealed that there have been more than 700 physical attacks against our grid in the last decade.

We’re On Notice

One particularly alarming incident featured in the 60 Minutes segment involved a highly professional assault in 2013 on a major substation near San Jose that very nearly blacked out Silicon Valley, San Francisco and other areas for a protracted period. Mabee noted that there are currently credible threats of terrorism and/or state actors putting the grid – and the society that utterly depends on it – at grave risk.

In the same segment, Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall – President Biden’s Homeland Security Advisor – acknowledged that “no one is in charge” of protecting the grid and that the federal government lacks the authority to mandate utilities to correct its vulnerabilities.

It can only be hoped, in light of the dire implications for millions of Americans who will perish if there is the sort of widespread and sustained grid-down crises our enemies know they could inflict, that the     60 Minutes audience will be moved to tap the resources available at www.SecuretheGrid.com and Mike Mabee’s website, www.civildefensebook.com to inform their insistence that the grid be made resilient against all hazards.

The Government Knows We’re Vulnerable – and What President Biden Should Do About it Now

Such steps are all the more needed in light of the fact that the U.S. government has known about: the cyber insecurity of the critical electric infrastructure since at least 2003; geomagnetic disturbance (GMD) threats since at least 1990; the vulnerability of the electric grid to physical threats since at least 1981; and the danger posed by electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats since at least 1972. Moreover, we continue to see year-after-year the impacts of extreme weather on our inadequately protected electric infrastructure.

Therefore, during his State of the Union address tomorrow night, President Biden should unveil the following immediate actions, (recommendations already made to the White House):

1. Announce that he will be issuing a Presidential Executive Order followed by a Department of Energy Emergency Order, to mandate protection of the entire electric grid against all known threats with a single leader in charge.
2. Request that Congress promptly send him legislation mandating that all entities, public or private sector, that are part of the critical electric infrastructure take reasonably prudent actions needed to address cybersecurity, physical security, EMP/GMD protection and hardening for severe weather events. Similar to the requirements imposed on the financial sector by the Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, such measures need to be certified periodically and publicly, as to well as state and federal authorities, by the Chief Executive Officer of each such critical electric infrastructure entity. And there must be civil and criminal penalties for false certification or failure to submit these
3. As recommended to the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board (SEAB), broaden federal whistleblower protections to include all employees, contractors, and subcontractors of the electric grid, owned and/or controlled in both public and private sectors. And,
4. Require via Executive Order that Chinese and other foreign equipment (including high voltage transformers, smart meters and inverters) be: identified, along with the use being made of it in the grid; examined immediately for hardware and software vulnerabilities; and replaced as soon as possible with equipment from reliable suppliers and not our enemies.

Anticipate – and Reject – Electric Industry Opposition to Securing the Grid

Such commonsense initiatives will almost certainly meet with formidable resistance from the electric utility lobby that has torpedoed grid security efforts for decades and has successfully inserted themselves into the federal rulemaking process and into states’ regulatory commissions. Trade associations, such as the Electric Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC) – which effectively operates as a lobbying group, as well the industry-owned and -operated Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and an army of attorneys and lobbyists have co-opted the entire federal and state electric grid regulatory system to ensure that it the electric utilities remain basically self-regulated. They must be reminded that OSHA writes the nation’s safety standards, the FAA writes aviation standards, the FDA writes food/drug standards and that it is past time the government writes and enforces grid protection standards.

The Bottom Line

The insecurity of the electric grid against all known threats is a true national emergency. The threats are not hypothetical. As the 60 Minutes segment dramatically demonstrated, they are present and intensifying dangers. We have no more time to study the problem – it has been studied, potentially quite literally to death. We can afford no further procrastination or obstructionism with respect to corrective actions that have long been identified, can be implemented quickly and are cost-effective – certainly compared to the price we will pay if the grid goes down and stays down.

Secure the grid. Now.