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.
