Enhancing State Energy Security Planning and Emergency Preparedness Act of 2019

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I want to confirm what the chairman said about this bill. It is bipartisan. We worked on this together. It is a good bill and it is an important one, which we passed on a voice vote on suspension in the last Congress. It reauthorizes the State Energy Program, and it strengthens our energy emergency planning and preparedness efforts.

As States and communities respond to the damage throughout the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic from Hurricane Dorian, we are reminded how States have to respond to so many different hazards, including hurricanes, earthquakes, floods, fuel supply disruptions, and physical and cyber threats.

This legislation, in fact, provides States with the flexibility that they need to address local energy challenges. It ensures that State energy security planning efforts address fuel supply issues, assess State energy profiles, address potential hazards to each energy sector, mitigate risk to enhance reliability, and incorporate regional planning efforts.

This legislation, H.R. 2114, helps States protect fuel and electric infrastructure from both physical and cyber threats and other vulnerabilities. It makes sure that we are thinking ahead, not just about an actual threat, but how our energy and electric systems might be vulnerable in a broader sense.

The bill also encourages mutual assistance, an essential part of responding and restoring, in the event of an energy emergency. So prioritizing and elevating security planning and emergency preparedness is, in fact, an important step in the face of increased threats, vulnerabilities, and interdependencies of energy infrastructure and end-use systems.

It is a bipartisan bill. It is a good bill. I urge all of my colleagues to vote for it, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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