Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense Act

Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5026, the Grid Reliability and Infrastructure Defense--or GRID--Act.

As Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, I am well aware of the need to protect our Nation's critical infrastructure.

Our Committee has held numerous classified briefings and public hearings on threats to the electric grid. Again and again, we received testimony from expert witnesses that our Nation's electric grid has inadequate protections against cyber attacks and against significant disruptions from electromagnetic threats, EMP, such as solar storms and radio frequency devices.

Further, the Federal Government does not have the authority to ensure its security, nor has it partnered effectively with the private sector to do so.

Protecting our electric grid from EMP will require the best efforts from both government and industry. To date, the electric sector has had a difficult time protecting their assets from EMP threats because although the potential impacts are huge, the frequency of their occurrence is very low.

This is one of those cases where government intervention seems necessary to protect our most important national critical infrastructure.

Last year, I, along with my ranking member PETER KING and many other bipartisan members of our Committee introduced H.R. 2195 to give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to require protections to be put in place for high impact, low frequency events.

H.R. 5026 is the product of collaborative work between this Committee and our colleagues on the Energy and Commerce Committee, most notably Chairman WAXMAN and Representatives MARKEY and BARROW.

Our electric grid is currently strained to capacity.

We saw during the Northeast Blackout of 2003 what can happen when the strained system finally breaks. That blackout interrupted electricity delivery to 55 million people in the U.S. and Canada. Luckily, major outages only lasted a day or so.

But just imagine what would happen if the power did not come back on for a week, or a month, or several months. What would happen?

An elecromagnetic pulse could make such an incredible scenario a reality.

The one that most people have heard about is from a high altitude burst of a nuclear weapon.

Also of concern are smaller radio or microwave devices, usually termed ``Intentional Electromagnetic Interference'' or ``IEMI''.

Of particular concern are ``geomagnetically induced currents'', GIC, caused by solar activity.

A 2008 National Academy of Sciences report warned that our Sun will inevitably inflict a severe geomagnetic storm with the largest geographic footprint of any natural disaster. The damage caused by this event could be $1 trillion to $2 trillion, and recovery could take 4 to 10 years.

The next period of maximum solar activity is only two years away.

From a homeland security perspective, it is important that we take an ``all hazards'' approach to the risk and increase preparedness for both intentional and naturally occurring events.

While some may argue that the threat of a high-altitude nuclear weapon burst perpetrated by a rogue state or a terrorist group is remote, I do not discount it. Given the high-consequence nature of such an attack, I take it very seriously.

On the other hand, scientists tell us that the likelihood of a severe naturally occurring geomagnetic event capable of crippling our electric grid is 100 percent. It will happen; it is just a question of when.

GIC is a natural occurrence just like earthquakes, wildfires, tornadoes or hurricanes.

Similarly, geomagnetic storms occur from time to time as part of the natural activity of the Sun. One such storm, in 1989, disrupted power throughout most of Quebec, and resulted in auroras as far south as Texas.

With the significant investments we are making in ``Green Energy'' and the ``Smart Grid'', we find ourselves at an opportune moment to protect our grid from an EMP and cyber attacks.

As we expand and improve our grid, we must also build in physical and cyber protections from the start, and we must retrofit key elements of the existing grid in order to protect it.

Federal authority and funding are needed if this effort is to succeed. H.R. 5026 represents a critical step forward in our efforts to meet these homeland security challenges and deserves support from this House.

Therefore, I urge Members to join me and support H.R. 5026.

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