Lights out: House plan would protect nation's electricity from solar flare, nuclear bomb

Washington Examiner ^ | JUNE 17, 2013 | 6:45 PM | PAUL BEDARD

[BenLurkin]

Amid growing fears of a massive electromagnetic pulse hit from either a solar flare or a terrorist nuclear bomb, House Republicans on Tuesday will unveil a plan to save the nation's electric grid from an attack that could mean lights out for 300 million Americans.

Dubbed the Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act, the legislation would push the federal government to install grid-saving devices such as surge protectors to protect against an attack.

"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," said Rep. Trent Franks, the Arizona Republican who is offering up the bipartisan bill.

Electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, has come into focus because of fears the sun is pushing out unusually big solar flares that can disrupt the electric grid. Defense officials are also worried about a terrorist attack, possibly in the form of a small nuclear bomb exploded overhead.

[BenLurkin]

Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage.

Sounds like something from a spoof spy movie.

[DManA]

Deregulate the power industry. As long as government calls the shots capital will wasted and the infrastructure will decline until it collapses.

Pass this bill and a few cronies will get richer and the electricity infrastructure will be worse off.

[struggle]

The faster they get this done, the better. Much of the electrical grid needs to be modernized anyway.

[Buckeye McFrog]

Plan involves 20 million Mexicans and a lot of candles...

[yobid]

To be bought and paid for by your “skyrocketing” utility bills.

[Mr. Lucky]

So, the level of capital investment in the power generation industry should be set by politics, not the marketplace? Seriously?

[Sacajaweau]

do they think these don’t exist

[JoeProBono]

[oh8eleven]

The faster they get this done, the better.
Yeah, like we need more GOVERNMENT solutions to our problems. Oy ...

[thackney]

such as surge protectors

Is there a single High Voltage Transmission line in the US that doesn't already have this equipment to protect against lightning strikes and switching surges?

This like creating a new law to require automobiles to have bumpers.

[The Great RJ]

Since our nukes, particularly those on submarines, are well protected against EMP, perhaps the POTUS should announce that an EMP attack against the US would be regarded as no less than a nuclear attack against the US. The US response to such an attack would be that any nation that instigated the attack or in the case of terrorists aided and abetted those terrorists would be subject to a full nuclear response from the US. This is nothing different than the mutually assured destruction policy that kept the peace during the cold war.

However, Obama would give no credibility to that policy as he is seen as weak and vacillating.

[Rich21IE]

you don’t know anything at all about this do you.

[Rich21IE]

what a friggin boondogle, porkulus pos this is. Somebody’s going to get rich and nothing will be made any better.

[BenLurkin]

Hussein would welcome an EMP attack on America.

[CodeToad]

It is nearly impossible to protect us from a solar flare. This is another expensive power grab.

[CodeToad]

“The faster they get this done, the better.”

They, who? And what, exactly, needs to be done?

[traditional1]

More payoffs to the BIG Utilities that donate and have fund-raisers for the Prolitereate, then siphon tax dollars to pay for their repairs/expansion/trading.

Follow the money, and it's easy to see the Millions spent on Lobbying, Campaign Donations, Fund-Raising sponsorships, with a Quid Pro Quo of favoable treatment AND BIG MONEY GRANTS of taxpayers' earnings to the same bunch, every time.

[Black Agnes]

Something tells me it’ll involve a lot of expensive, privacy grabbing equipment that can only be procured from big campaign donor’s companies.

Call it a hunch.

[schm0e]

the government will fix this like it fixes everything else.

[Hardraade]

Build hamster wheels for all Demonrats.

Lock them in.

Whip them into meaningful production.