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Trump first president to protect electric grid from EMP, cyberattacks

by Paul Bedard | Dec 20, 2017, 12:03 PM 

President Trump became the first national leader to call for protecting the U.S electric and communications grid against an electromagnetic attack like one practiced in North Korea.

Deep in his new national security strategy released this week, he made good on a campaign promise to move quickly to make the fixes that proponents have long called for.

Full article: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/trump-first-president-to-protect-electric-grid-from-emp-cyberattacks/article/2644025

EarthEx

Black Sky video: http://eiscouncil.org/VideoEarthEX

 

Texas Senator Bob Hall Introduces Legislative Bill to Protect the Texas Electrical Grid

Senator Bob Hall of Texas has introduced legislation for the next legislative session to protect the Texas electrical grid.

S.B. No. 83

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to the protection of energy critical instrastructure from electromagnetic, geomagnetic, terrorist, and cyber-attack threats.

 

Text of Texas EMP legislation bill: http://www.legis.state.tx.us/tlodocs/85R/billtext/html/SB00083I.htm

Conservative media sustain alarm about a possible electromagnetic-pulse catastrophe

Conservative media sustain alarm about a possible electromagnetic-pulse catastrophe

National Review and others emphasize an “existential threat” in an EMP from a high-altitude nuclear burst—but solar activity stirs the fear too.

 

Conservative media sustain alarm about a possible electromagnetic-pulse catastrophe

Journalists and commentators mainly on the political right, prompted partly by a government report in March, have been seeking to keep public attention on the possibility of a society-devastating electromagnetic pulse, or EMP.  They focus mainly on a nuclear bomb as the cause.

EMPs, whether caused by a bomb or the sun, are an old concern. In 2011, the New York Times’s William Broad reported that former Republican speaker of the house Newt Gingrich had been “ringing alarm bells” about them. In the present venue, a 2014 media report quoted commentators in asking “Could an ‘electric Armageddon’ bring civilization ‘to a cold, dark halt’? Observers in the media consider huge electromagnetic disruptions, both solar and human-caused.” Last September, Physics Today’s David Kramer reported on EMPs.

In recent months, however, conservative media have emphasized them. And though that government report called EMPs a “risk,” reporters and opinion writers have been calling them a “threat.”

In a bland statement about the federal report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) summarized what it called “electromagnetic risks caused by a man-made EMP or a naturally occurring solar weather event.” Either, the GAO said, “could have a significant impact on the nation’s electric grid as well as other infrastructure sectors...such as communications. These risks could lead to power outages over broad geographic areas for extended durations.” Responding to “congressional requesters” and recalling a 2008 report, the GAO called for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to “identify internal roles to address electromagnetic risks, and collect additional risk inputs to further inform assessment efforts.” It also called for DHS and the Energy Department to “collaborate to ensure critical electrical infrastructure assets are identified” and to “engage with industry stakeholders to identify and prioritize risk-management activities” including R&D.

 

Full article:http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/news/10.1063/PT.5.8178

Preparing for Widespread Power Outages: What Local First Responders Need to Know

Preparing for Widespread Power Outages: What Local First Responders Need to Know - In Public Safety

By Dennis Porter, alumnus, Homeland Security, American Military University

On April 21, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee discussed an issue that many states and local governments aren’t addressing: The possibility of a widespread grid power outages that would cause people to be out of electricity for long amounts of time.

According to an article in SC Magazine, the chairman of the committee, Rep. Lou Barletta (R-Penn.), told members that they need to start helping states and local governments prepare for such an event. During the same meeting, Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), said his agency was working with the Department of Energy to develop federal plans to respond to long-term power outages. Part of this operational plan, he said, would address national safety threats caused by long-lasting electrical power outages.

While congressional committee meetings on this subject demonstrate that federal authorities are starting to think about such a disaster, not enough discussion is happening at the state and local level.

 

Full article: http://inpublicsafety.com/2016/05/preparing-for-widespread-power-outages-what-local-first-responders-need-to-know/?utm_source=policemag&utm_medium=email&utm_content=power%20outage&utm_campaign=Public%20Safety%20-%20ET%20-%20AMU

Space Weather - A Historic Shift in Emergency Preparedness

Article Detail - Domestic Preparedness

by Charles (Chuck) Manto

Wed, June 15, 2016

For the first time since the demise of the civil defense program of the Cold War, the federal government has made one of the most significant modifications to its emergency preparedness message. A three-day emergency kit is no longer sufficient to prepare for emerging threats, whether coming from Earth or from space.

Article Detail - Domestic Preparedness

Instead of implying that U.S. communities can always count on being rescued from any disaster in four days – requiring three days of food and water to stay comfortable – the implication now is that local communities might not always receive assistance for a much longer period of time. The source of this change is the new Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan, which were released on 29 October 2015 and explained again at an April 2016 Space Weather Workshop.

The NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center hosted its annual Space Weather Workshop in Broomfield, Colorado, the week of 27 April 2016. This year was special because of the intimate involvement of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, which provided keynote addresses and the 2015 promulgation of the National Space Weather Strategy and Action Plan.

 

 

 

 

Of special interest to the emergency management community is the second of six goals of the strategy that contain the following four elements:

1. “Complete an all-hazards power outage response and recovery plan: for extreme space weather events and the long-term loss of electric power and cascading effects on other critical infrastructure sectors;

2. Other low-frequency, high-impact events are also capable of causing long-term power outages on a regional or national scale.

3. The plan must include the Whole Community and enable the prioritization of core capabilities.

4. Develop and conduct exercises to improve and test Federal, State, regional, local and industry-related space weather response and recovery plans: Exercising plans and capturing lessons learned enables ongoing improvement in event response and recovery capabilities.”

 

 

Full article: http://www.domesticpreparedness.com/First_Responder/Emergency_Management/Space_Weather_-_A_Historic_Shift_in_Emergency_Preparedness/

Joint InfraGard Houston - Public Safety SIG & EMP Meeting

** SPACE IS LIMITED ** CLICK HERE TO REGISTER **

Date & Time:  Thursday, June 16, 2016 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm

Venue:  Harris County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (TRANSTAR)

Address:  6922 Katy Road, Houston, TX 77024

Topic:  Securing the Texas Grid

Speaker:  Ron Jacobus, TX Senator Bob Hall’s Office

For over a decade, experts have warned that the U.S. electric grid is vulnerable to physical, cyber and electromagnetic (EMP) threats. However, unlike physical and cyber, the threat from an EMP to the nation’s electric grid has all but been ignored by government and the electric industry.  At present, more than eleven comprehensive studies have detailed the seriousness of the EMP threat. Several well-esteemed scientists have detailed both the seriousness of the EMP threat and the relatively low cost to secure our electric grid infrastructure from it.  During this period of increased solar storm activity and a growing unpredictability between geopolitical rivals, the U.S. electric power grid's vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack and geomagnetic solar storms is a clear and present danger to both the State of Texas and the greater physical, economic, and societal fabric of the United States. However, unlike the other 48 continental states, Texas has the ability to secure its portion of the electric grid from the threat of EMP. That is why Mr. Jacobus decided to host a solutions-based summit aimed at developing a framework from which we can protect the Texas Grid.

In the meantime, while the legislative process continues and the gap between legislation and implementation remains, it is imperative that the State's emergency management planers are prepared to address the unique challenges that first responders would encounter following an EMP event.

ROSCOE BARTLETT: American Hero

by DR. PETER VINCENT PRY June 2, 2016

Few Americans have heard of Roscoe Bartlett--but all Americans may someday owe him their lives.  The former congressman from Maryland's 6th District, who on June 3rd celebrated his 90th birthday, is the modern Paul Revere of electromagnetic pulse (EMP). 

It is a safe bet that most or all readers of Family Security Matters now know about the EMP threat.  Indeed, more Americans may know about EMP than about Paul Revere, a situation Roscoe would certainly disapprove! 

Roscoe Bartlett took EMP out of the classified shadows.  There its potentially paralyzing effects on military forces and civilian critical infrastructures were deeply understood only by a small number of nuclear strategists and specialists.

 The American people now know about the existential threat that is EMP because of Roscoe Bartlett.   

Full article: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/detail/roscoe-bartlett-american-hero?f=must_reads

States Work to Protect the Electric Grid from Catastrophic Disturbances

A huge solar superstorm fries hundreds of high-voltage transformers, shutting down the nation’s electrical power grid. A hostile nation or a group of terrorists detonates a nuclear weapon above the U.S. atmosphere, raining gamma rays and causing massive blackouts.

While these sound like sci-fi movie plots, some scientists and government officials think either scenario could actually occur and end up disabling the country’s electrical grid for weeks, months or years, leaving telecommunications and emergency services severely disrupted and affecting the food supply, sanitation and drinking water.

Full article: http://empactamerica.org/states-work-protect-electric-grid-catastrophic-disturbances/

GAO Report: US Still Not Prepared for Possible EMP Attack

A contractor walks through an electrical transmission substation in Ohio. (AP photo)

(CNSNews.com) –  Two weeks after North Korea threatened to launch nuclear strikes against the U.S., the Government Accountability Office(GAO) reported that the federal government has still not implemented all of the recommendations made eight years ago to prevent catastrophic blackouts caused by an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack.

The recommendations were made in 2008 by the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electro-Magnetic Pulse Attack (EMP Commission).

Full article: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/barbara-hollingsworth/gao-report-us-remains-vulnerable-emp-attack