House Republicans have unveiled a plan that could protect the nation’s electric grid from an electromagnetic pulse, amid growing concerns of a potential massive power outage resulting from a solar flare or hostile attack.
Known as the Secure High-Voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage (SHIELD) Act, the legislation would reportedly push the federal government to install surge protectors and other “grid-saving devices” to protect against an attack or EMP.
“It is critical that we protect our major transformers from cascading destruction. The Shield Act encourages industry to develop standards necessary to protect our electric infrastructure against both natural and man-made EMP events,” Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., who is offering up the bipartisan bill, said. Franks and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will introduce the legislation at a meeting of the House EMP Caucus on Tuesday, June 17.
The legislation, reportedly provided in advance to the Washington Examiner, will include information from a recent EMP commission report stating that “contemporary U.S. society is not structured, nor does it have the means, to provide for the needs of nearly 300 million Americans without electricity.”
In recent months, NASA has reported a series of mid-level solar flares emitting from the sun, which is currently at the peak of its 11-year cycle of magnetic activity. A powerful flare could potentially produce a solar superstorm capable of destroying Earth’s electronic systems, NASA scientists said. Military officials also remain concerned that an enemy may explode nuclear weapons in Earth’s upper atmosphere, in an attempt to disable military and commercial communications equipment. Such a blast would emit an electromagnetic pulse capable of disrupting radio frequency communication signals.
Any EMP attack could be extremely damaging, former Pentagon official Frank Gaffney, who now heads the Center for Security Policy, said, citing a Lloyds of London report that stated 20-40 million Americans from Washington, D.C. to New York City could be without electricity for up to two years following a solar superstorm. The costs of remediation for such an event could run between $600 billion and $2 trillion.
But, he added, there is growing bipartisan interest in the protection of the electric grid.
Earlier this month, at the initiative of Rep. Andrea Boland (D-Stanford), Maine became the first state in the country to adopt legislation calling for the protection of its grid against an electromagnetic pulse. Under the new legislation, the Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) will be responsible for identifying and examining potential protective measures designed to mitigate the effects of an EMP on the state’s electric grid transmission system.
Former Pentagon official F. Michael Maloof noted following the state legislation’s introduction in March that legislators in other states, including Tennessee and Georgia, are considering similar action.
