Congressman Pushes Bill To Prepare For EMP Threat
August 19, 2009 by national
Filed under Emergency Preparedness
America’s electric grid is vulnerable to attack from electromagnetic weaponry, and building a smart grid might make it worse, says Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD). Bartlett, a former research scientist and engineer, offers his solution for securing U.S. electronics from attack.
“The more sophisticated we become, the more vulnerable we are,” said Bartlett. “There’s a huge concern about cyber-attacks on the grid. Well a really robust nuclear EMP lay-down means microelectronics across the country would be shut down and you have no power…there’s one event that we will not avoid, and that is a solar electromagnetic interference, solar storm. If we have a big one like the one that occurred back in 1859, that would shut down the whole grid for quite a long while. It would cost about $100 million to protect much of the grid, but if the grid went down, it would cost us between $1 trillion and $2 trillion in damages, and the loss of life could be horrendous if in fact you were without electricity for months at a time. There’s a bill in the House, and it’s got to go through the Energy and Commerce Committee.”
$100M is nothing compared to the substantial costs involved if nothing is done.
This is more important than healthcare or clunkers. Therefore, our wonderful congress will do nothing about it.