Infrastructure protectionStates seek to protect grid from solar flare damage
Citing warnings from scientists about the threat of major solar storms — or EMPs, intense bursts of radiation from the sun — and their potential to disrupt the nation’s electrical grid, many state lawmakers are introducing legislation that seeks to protect their region’s infrastructure. Congress has commissioned reports and held hearings about the dangers of solar storm events, but little action has been taken, prompting many state legislators to take matters in their own hands.
Citing warnings from scientists about the threat of major solar storms — or EMPs, intense bursts of radiation from the sun — and their potential to disrupt the nation’s electrical grid, many state lawmakers are introducing legislation that seeks to protect their region’s infrastructure.
As thePew Charitable Trusts reports, Congress has commissioned reports and held hearings about the dangers of solar storm events, but little action has been taken, prompting many state legislators to take matters in their own hands.
They are working to combat what could be a major disaster if a solar flare were to disable the national electrical grid. Electrical power could be unavailable for weeks, telecommunications and emergency services would be disrupted, and food, water, and sanitation issues would plague many.
Some cite the Carrington Event of 1859as an early instance of what might occur, made exponentially worse today with over a century of further technological progress.
“This is an area in which we are extremely vulnerable. It’s a real problem. What if the power doesn’t come back on?” said Virginia State Senator Bryce Reeves (R). Reeves sponsored a measure last year to study the issue and seek solutions to protect Virginia against such threats.
Other reports have offered increasingly dire predictions. The National Governors Association concludedthat 70 percent of the country’s transmission lines and transformers are at least twenty-five years old, and 60 percent of circuit breakers are at least thirty years old. The paper cites that most electrical infrastructure was designed in the 1950s, making the larger system “vulnerable to disruption.”
Since this time, many states have at least drafted legislation. According to Kristy Harman, the senior energy policy specialist for the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), “since 2013, EMP or solar storm-related legislation has been filled in at least 11 states. It was enacted in five, failed in three and is pending in the rest.”
Among these measures, there have been efforts to study the potential of threats, such as those made by Reeves, in states such as Louisiana, but there have also been more stringent initiatives as well.
Arizona has begun requiring its emergency management agency to develop preparedness bulletins and recommendations for the public should an event occur. In Kentucky, the legislature voted to establish an interagency working group that could study the response risks by department, including the state’s ability to be prepared for similar acts of terrorism, such as the use of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) weapon.
In Florida, State Representative Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda sponsored a failed measure to have Congress direct the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to use disaster resources to prepare for such an event. Elsewhere, legislators are urging electrical transmission and distribution companies to take action on their own accord.
What is noticeable is that in most states the understanding of the need for for safety and protection against a solar storm disaster transcends the normal bipartisanism of government.
“This is a nonpartisan issue for us,” Reeves said. “And in our state, the utility companies get it. They understand and are on board with it. They don’t want to be ‘the bad people.’ They are at the table and are not opposed to placing protections from EMPs on the grid.”
