WASHINGTON, February 28, 2020 – The electric grid resilience organization Protect Our Power welcomed the planned introduction in Congress of energy legislation that includes provisions to better protect the U.S. electric grid against physical and cyber threats.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-AK, Chairwoman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has released the text of The American Energy Innovation Act, co-authored with Sen. Joe Manchin, D-WV, Ranking Member of the Committee. The legislation includes provisions aimed at strengthening the security of the electric grid, including a section on cyber and grid security and modernization.

“Our nation’s critical infrastructure, including the electric grid, is under constant cyberattack,” Protect Our Power Executive Director Jim Cunningham said. “It is imperative that we meet this threat head-on, and with urgency, and the cyber provisions in this legislation help jumpstart that process. Protect Our Power applauds Chairman Murkowski and Ranking Member Manchin for their leadership in responding to this imminent threat. The legislation’s provisions requiring mechanisms to encourage cybersecurity investments, a grant program to assist rural and municipal utilities, and better information sharing on cyber risks all speak to gaps that Protect Our Power has identified in a series of studies.”

Cunningham noted that the consequences from losing large swaths of our electric grid for an extended time period would be devastating to our economy and our citizenry.

“Hospitals, financial institutions, water treatment plants, the transportation industry, the food industry and countless other entities at the core of our critical infrastructure rely on electricity around the clock. The transmission outages that have occurred in recent months in California have shown just how devastating service interruptions are to the infirm who rely on life-saving electrical devices, oxygen machines and dialysis machines,” Cunningham said.  “As electricity demand increases with each new advanced technology that improves our lives, we cannot accept vulnerabilities in our electric system operations, or in the global supply chain that supports them.”

Media Contact:
Steve Kerekes | Protect Our Power
skerekes@protectourpower.org
(703)-508-2550