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https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/436224-finally-a-presidential-emp-order-that-may-save-american-lives?amp

President Trump on Tuesday added to his long list of battles by issuing an executive order to increase preparedness for a possible electromagnetic pulse, or EMP, attack. An EMP, either by a nuclear device or solar event, could shut down massive sections of the electric grid, according to numerous studies. That would mean no financial transactions are possible, no truck transport to haul goods and food, no communications and much more. In short, it could threaten the lives of tens of millions of people. The White House confirmed that the president has signed an order titled “Coordinating National Resilience to...

The U.S. does not have to be Venezuela, either socialist or grid down As if the complete — and inevitable — collapse of Venezuela’s disastrous socialist experiment were not bad enough, the long-suffering population there is now five days into a near-total collapse of its electric grid. People are increasingly desperate for the most basic necessities of life, most especially water.

Federal officials and energy experts offered their most blunt assessment to date regarding the ongoing vulnerability of the U.S. power grid, telling a Senate committee that solar-generated attacks alone cost $10 billion a year. In testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Operations Committee, the officials noted that the attacks are growing and pose a substantial, long-term risk to a vulnerable power grid. They warned that a catastrophic failure would cut off electricity to millions of Americans, probably for months at a time, causing untold damage and social chaos, adding that the grid is an easy target for solar,...

A report by the now-defunct Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from EMP Attack, for the first time reveals details on how nuclear EMP weapons are integrated into the military doctrines of China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. "Nuclear EMP attack is part of the military doctrines, plans, and exercises of Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran for a revolutionary new way of warfare against military forces and civilian critical infrastructures by cyber, sabotage, and EMP," the report states.

Dr. Peter Pry is the Executive Director of the EMP Task Force. Pry explains there are three sources of EMP: the sun, nuclear weapons, and non-nuclear weapons. The entire world would be affected, putting “electric grids and critical infrastructures” as well as “billions of lives” at risk. Pry believes it is “inevitable” that we will be struck by a Carrington-class geomagnetic storms, for “it’s not a question of if, but it’s a question of when will that happen.” A second EMP threat stems from nuclear weapons “detonated at high altitude” of 30 to 400 kilometers. “A single nuclear weapon detonated...

Commuters who live in western Prince William and Fauquier counties can leave the driving to someone else come Dec. 17 when a new bus begins round-trip service from Haymarket to Arlington. The “OmniRide Haymarket Express” will make four trips in the morning and four return trips in the afternoon and early evening. It will run along I-66 between Haymarket and the Rosslyn Metro station. The trips will originate from the new park-and-ride lot on the northeast corner of U.S. 15 and Interstate 66. The Monday-through Friday service is meant to give workers an alternative to traveling by car. It’s the...

Executive Summary The nation has steadily improved its ability to respond to major disasters and the power outages that often result. But increasing threats—whether severe natural disasters, cyber-physical attacks, electromagnetic events, or some combination—present new challenges for protecting the national power grid and recovering quickly from a catastrophic power outage. The President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council (NIAC) was tasked to examine the nation’s ability to respond to and recover from a catastrophic power outage of a magnitude beyond modern experience, exceeding prior events in severity, scale, duration, and consequence. Simply put, how can the nation best prepare for and...

In a new DHS report that warns that the electric grid is the “prime target” of terrorists, Americans are being urged prepare for the up to six months without electricity, transportation, fuel, money and healthcare. “People no longer keep enough essentials within their homes, reducing their ability to sustain themselves during an extended, prolonged outage. We need to improve individual preparedness,” said a just-published report to President Trump. “There needs to be more individual accountability for preparedness,” adds the report, “Surviving a Catastrophic Power Outage,” from the President’s National Infrastructure Advisory Council and published by the Department of Homeland Security....

U.S. military facilities involved in command and control of forces face a growing risk of disruption by an electromagnetic pulse attack or solar superstorm that could knock out all electronics at the strategic bases, according to a report. The report by the Air Force Electromagnetic Defense Task Force, made up of civilian and military experts, also warns that EMP or geomagnetic disturbances could cause catastrophic damage and the loss of life in the United States. “Multiple adversaries are capable of executing a strategic attack that may black out major portions of a state’s grid,” the report said. “An EMP attack...

The electromagnetic spectrum (EMS) is a broad area of activity characterized by physically observable activities such as visible light and lasers and unobservable phenomena such as microwaves and electro-magnetic energy. EMS manifests through various frequencies and wavelengths produced by natural sources like solar storms or artificially by hardware such as radar or nuclear weapons. EMS impacts every domain of warfare. On 20–22 August 2018, the Electromagnetic Defense Task Force (EDTF) hosted an inaugural summit in the National Capital Region (NCR). The summit was designed to aid and encourage actions to recover footing where our technological lead in EMS is being...

The report, titled, “Electromagnetic Defense Task Force,” and the product of a mostly classified summit of officials from 40 agencies just outside of Washington earlier this year, is a forceful call for a new focus on preparing for either an enemy EMP attack or a natural hit such as a solar storm. While it is focused on the devastating impact an EMP hit would have on the military, it appears to support a congressional warning that up to 90 percent of the population on the East Coast would die in a year of an attack that would dismantle or interfere...

Declassified report warns of dangers from electromagnetic pulse China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are preparing nuclear electronic pulse attacks from space in a future conflict to cripple the U.S. military and plunge the United States into darkness, according to a declassified study. "The United States critical national infrastructure faces a present and continuing existential threat from combined-arms warfare, including cyber and manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, and natural EMP from a solar superstorm," says a recently published report from the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack." The report, containing redactions...

Nuclear Threat: Russia, China, North Korean, and Iran are prepping for nuclear-sourced electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attacks from space in any future conflict with the United States that would cripple the Pentagon’s ability to respond while leaving America in the dark, a recently declassified study says. “The United States critical national infrastructure faces a present and continuing existential threat from combined-arms warfare, including cyber and manmade electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, and natural EMP from a solar superstorm,” the report from the congressional Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack said.

The United States is vulnerable to a devastating electromagnetic pulse event caused by a high-altitude nuclear blast or solar superstorm, according to a recently published book. Peter Pry, a former CIA analyst and author of the book EMP Manhattan Project, is urging the government to rapidly harden the U.S. electric power system against EMP similar to the three-year crash program to build the first atomic bomb in 1942. "Today the United States and the world faces another existential threat—from an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) catastrophe that can be caused by nature or man, and topple the technological pillars of modern electronic...

When the Commission to Assess the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse [EMP] Attack published its report in 2004, coal accounted for roughly half of all power produced in the United States. Today, only a third of US electricity comes from coal, according to the US Energy Information Agency (EIA). This is good news for both environmentalists and natural gascompanies. The formers’ long term dream of a more sustainable source of power is being realized, while the latters’ business is booming. According to the EIA report, natural gas now makes up a third of all power produced – with nuclear and renewables...

As a prepper and avid reader of post-apocalyptic fiction like One Second After, Alas Babylon, and Going Home, an EMP has long been on my mind as one of the most catastrophic threats we could face. After reading numerous reports from the Congressional EMP Commission, I figured that the reality of such a threat was a given. So when I recently wrote about making Faraday cages, imagine my surprise when I saw this comment: I appreciate the attempt to help people prepare for all kinds of disasters, but I’m going to have to throw a conversational bomb into this room,...

In this May 21, 1956, file photo, the stem of a hydrogen bomb, the first such nuclear device dropped from a U.S. aircraft, moves upward through a heavy cloud and comes through the top of the cloud, after the bomb was detonated over Namu Island in the Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands. North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho said his country may conduct a "historic" hydrogen bomb test in the Pacific Ocean. Many experts think North Korea wouldn't do something so risky, but it's hard to rule out given North Korea's steadily expanding nuclear and missile tests. AP Parts...

A congressional committee report states that a large electromagnetic pulse (EMP) inundating America could cause 90% of Americans to die. The EMP is inevitable. The dead Americans are not. Pry explained that an EMP can happen in a few different ways: if an adversary attacks America using nuclear weapons, or naturally via a large solar storm. The reason why a large EMP hitting Earth is inevitable is that solar storms are inevitable. They happen regularly. The only question is when a large one will cross Earth's path. For instance, NASA reported that if a solar superstorm from 2012 had happened...

The U.S. electric grid has become increasingly vulnerable to what the federal government is describing as an unprecedented wave of attacks that threatens to cripple the nation, according to a new investigative report that warns the energy industry is lagging in efforts to boost physical security of these critical sites. Amid a wave of increasing attacks across the country on key power stations, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, or NERC, has been struggling to force the power industry to enact a series of security improvements meant to stop would-be attackers and terrorists from crippling the nation's infrastructure. Since 2014,...