North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015
Floor Speech
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Mr. FRANKS of Arizona. Mr. Chairman, I want first to thank the chairman of the Rules Committee, Mr. Sessions, for making this amendment in order, along with his committee members.
And I want to sincerely thank the chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Mr. Upton, for his support for the amendment and also just for the entire effort on his part in other committees of jurisdiction to move this underlying and critically important bill forward.
Mr. Chairman, our national security and the reliability of our electric grid are inextricably related. Without the grid, telecommunications no longer operate, transportation of every kind is profoundly affected, sewage and water treatment facilities stop, and a safe and continuous food supply is interrupted.
Contemporary society, Mr. Chairman, is not structured nor does it have the means to provide for the needs of nearly 300 million Americans without electricity. The current strategy for recovery from a failure of the electric grid leaves us ill-prepared to respond effectively to a significant manmade or naturally occurring electromagnetic pulse event that would potentially result in damage to vast numbers of the critical electric grid components nearly simultaneously or over an unprecedented geographic scale.
Mr. Chairman, the negative impacts on U.S. electric infrastructure are potentially catastrophic in a major EMP or severe space weather event unless practical steps are taken to provide protection for critical elements of the electric system.
Nearly a dozen studies, including those by DOD, DOE, the Army War College, the National Academy of Sciences, and the bipartisan Electromagnetic Pulse Commission have all come to the same conclusion: The United States bulk power grid is critically vulnerable to severe space weather and electromagnetic pulse, and this represents a profound danger to this Nation.
We have now spent billions of dollars hardening our critical defense assets against electromagnetic pulse. However, the Department of Defense depends upon the unprotected civilian grid within the continual United States for 99 percent of their electricity needs without which they cannot effect their mission.
Some of America's most enlightened national security experts, as well as many of our enemies or potential enemies, consider a well-executed weaponized electromagnetic pulse against America to be a ``kill shot'' against America.
It is astonishing that our civilian grid remains fundamentally unprotected against a severe EMP, and for it to remain so is an open invitation to our enemies to exploit this dangerous vulnerability.
Mr. Chairman, my amendment amends section 215 of the Federal Power Act by creating a protocol for cooperation between industry and government in the development, promulgation, and implementation of standards and processes that are necessary to address the current shortcomings and vulnerabilities of the electric grid from a major EMP event.
This base bill does indeed provide for such protocols for the protection of the grid but only in a ``grid security emergency,'' defined in the bill as the actual occurrence of the EMP event or the imminent danger of one, and only after the President issues a written directive declaring such an emergency.
Mr. Chairman, that is akin to having a parachute that opens on impact. The nature of this threat is such that if there is a true emergency it may be too late to effectively respond. My amendment is critical because it proactively encourages cooperation on a solution to our vulnerability before it is deemed an emergency.
Mr. Chairman, finally, I would just say that we live in a time where the vulnerabilities to our electric grid, our most critical infrastructure, are big enough to be seen and still small enough to be addressed. This is our moment.
I appeal to my colleagues to support this vital amendment to protect Americans and our national security from this dangerous threat.
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