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Sen. Jeff Bingaman this week urged lawmakers to take action on a bill that would strengthen security efforts for the nation’s electrical grid. Ensuring protection for the grid, he explained in a special report for The Hill, is a critical element national safety.
In his report, Bingaman explained the importance of a secure and reliable electrical grid and the ways in which the nation depends on its functionality.
“The electric grid serves more than 143 million American customers and has to operate without interruption every moment of every day to transfer electricity affordably across the nation,” he said. “It also is a key foundation of our national security.”
While modernization of the grid has introduced affordable and accessible resources for the industry, it also introduces new security concerns.
The Grid Cyber Security Act, Bingaman explained, takes two significant steps to establish robust security policies for the nation’s electrical grid. Firstly, it grants leaders in the Senate Committee on Energy the authority to order utilities to take actions to protect critical electric infrastructure against imminent cybersecurity threats.
“This fills a massive security gap, as no federal official has authority to act in such instances,” he wrote. “This provision is broadly supported by the utility industry and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, the entity charged under current law with developing standards for grid reliability.”
The act also allows for the collaboration between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the NAERC in addressing weaknesses that may expose electric infrastructure to cybersecurity threats.
“It is structured to preserve the established roles of industry and government in addressing cybersecurity vulnerabilities,” Bingaman said. “Both roles are significant, given the level of private ownership of the grid and sophisticated and ever-evolving threat environment.”
The bill, which the Senate unanimously approved in May, represents the latest efforts by the committee to urge Congress to take action toward a strong electric grid cybersecurity legislation.
