The Department of Homeland Security is being urged to place far more of a focus on the safety and security of the power grid. The most important and heavily relied upon piece of American infrastructure is increasingly a target of attack by both man and nature.
Every minute of every day we face a deadly threat in America, yet very few are paying attention to the problem. A downed power grid would change life as we know it more than virtually any other doomsday scenario ever could; and is far more likely than a plethora of the apocalyptic scenarios contrived by Hollywood producers.
Should the power grid go down for just a single week, approximately one million Americans will likely die. Many scientists agree that such a doomsday scenario would also cause trillions of dollars’ worth of damage. With the very existence of such a significant portion of society on the line, a logical person would think that the government would be taking the idea of a massive solar storm, cyber attack, or EMP attack, far more seriously. But, applying logic or common sense to the way career politicians think is a futile endeavor.
Power grid terrorism and failure concerns have prompted Arizona to push the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to focus more keenly on electromagnetic pulse (EMP) threats. United States Representative Trent Franks is once again the man pushing to have the Obama administration make the safety and security of the power grid a top priority.
If the grid failed due to an EMP attack, life would change drastically within seconds. Sensitive computer equipment, such as life-saving machines used in hospitals, electrical systems in modern vehicles, cell phones, and a multitude of other commonly relied upon gadgets, would cease to function if not properly stored inside a Faraday cage. Since an X-Class solar flare has directly impacted Earth since 1859, and America has not yet been the target of an EMP attack, the effectiveness of Faraday cages is based solely upon controlled tests and laboratory simulations.
The power grid is our most antiquated and vulnerable piece of infrastructure. The entire system is teetering on the brink of failure. The grid is often called America’s glass jaw because of the nation’s reliability on it and also due to its many weaknesses, such as its vulnerability to a domino effect because it is interconnected. There are about 5,800 power plants and 450,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the U.S., many of them decades old and a large portion of them connected to one another.
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, the executive director of the Congressional advisory board on both the National and Homeland Security Task Forces and the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, also once again offered insight into the significant threat to society, which would occur if an EMP attack of solar flare took down the power grid, during the meeting. Dr. Pry cited Franks’ SHIELD Act as an example of the government’s unwillingness to act upon the concerns voiced by experts and security officials.
Representative Franks recently had this to say about the needed EMP attack focus which should occur by the Department of Homeland Security:
“The Critical Infrastructure Protection Act will enhance DHS threat assessments for geomagnetic disturbances and electromagnetic pulse blackouts which will enable practical steps to protect the vital electric grid that serves America and her critical financial, agricultural, medical and emergency response capabilities and many other critical systems.”
Electromagnetic pulse attack threats were among the possible terrorism scenarios discussed with Department of Homeland Security (DHS) during a Senate hearing on last fall. While the primary terrorist attack concerns revolved around both physical and cyber attacks by “radical Islamists” like ISIS, EMP threats were also a topic of conversation during the meeting.
“I want to talk about something that I’ve been now briefed on, the threat of EMP attack,” Senator Johnson said during the Senate hearing with DHS officials. “Both in terms of the high-altitude nuclear blast, which was what I kind of always new existed out there and I guess kinda hoping that nobody has the capability or would be stupid enough to do it. But now I’m also aware of the fact that a massive solar flare also represents a real threat. Is it something we are looking to harden our electrical grid against?” the Republican lawmaker asked.
“I was recently in the U.K. at an international conference, energy infrastructure security summit, where EMPs was a clear focus in those discussions. This is something that is very much on our radar screen that we are working to address,” Spaulding said.
The assurance, without any particulars, has not calmed the fears of many Americans who are concerned about a power grid down event.
“The problem is not the technology. We know how to protect against it. It’s not the money it doesn’t cost that much. The problem is the politics, It always seems to be the politics that gets in the way,” said Peter Vincent Pry, executive director of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and director of the U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum.
The Congressional EMP Commission estimated that the power grid could be protected for about $2 billion.
Do you think the federal government should be more focused on securing the power grid?