OPINION:
In early December 2022, two electrical substations in my home county of Moore County, N.C., were intentionally targeted and damaged by gunfire. More than 45,000 homes and businesses lost power. Families struggled to keep warm. Schools and businesses closed. The hospital ran on backup generators. Tragically, an 87-year-old woman died after the outage cut power to the oxygen machine she used at night.
Ever since this horrific attack, securing our electric grid has been one of my top priorities in Congress. I brought the Energy and Commerce Committee to Moore County for a field hearing, organized a classified FBI briefing for Members of Congress on threats to the grid, and have worked to pass bipartisan grid-security bills. Keeping the grid secure requires two things: stopping attacks before they happen, and making sure there’s enough power to go around when we need it.
First, we must protect the grid from attacks. What happened in Moore County was physical, but the next attack is likely to be a cyberattack.
Foreign adversaries have already demonstrated what that could look like. In 2015, Russian hackers broke into the computer that controls Ukraine’s grid and cut power to about 225,000 people. More recently, it was reported that Iran attempted cyberattacks against American infrastructure, including electrical grid. It has also been reported that U.S. officials are concerned Chinese hackers are trying to gain access to our critical infrastructure so they can disrupt it.
An American grid that is open to vulnerabilities allows our adversaries to inflict serious damage without a physical attack. If our nation’s power is shut off, attackers could potentially disrupt medical care, intelligence and defense communications, and military operations. A small-town power company shouldn’t be expected to defend itself against an adversary alone. Federal agencies can see warning signs across the country and alert providers before hackers get into their systems.
Congress has addressed these problems with two bills that passed the House this summer. The Rural and Municipal Utility Cybersecurity Act would continue grants and hands-on help to rural electric cooperatives and municipal electric utilities, giving smaller power providers the resources to train employees, bring in experts, and strengthen their systems.
Additionally, the Energy Threat Analysis Center Act would help power companies, Energy Department experts, and intelligence officials share information, so a threat discovered in one part of the country doesn’t catch everyone else by surprise. Together, these bills would give our grid better defenses against cyberattacks.
But protecting the grid from attacks is only half the job. Even a secure grid can’t function if there isn’t enough electricity to meet demand. California learned that the hard way in August 2020. During a historic heat wave, demand surged past the power available, forcing the state’s grid operator to order rolling blackouts on two consecutive days. Those outages weren’t caused by an attack or storm; there simply wasn’t enough electricity available.
America should never put itself in that position. I am in favor of an all-of-the-above approach to American energy, which means removing the barriers facing our energy producers, keeping power plants running, and building out our industrial capacity — especially when it comes to nuclear power.
Renewables play an important role in our all-of-the-above approach, but grid sustainability can’t be achieved by overleveraging our production into energy sources that aren’t reliable when you need them.
Unfortunately, for four years, the Biden administration took America in the wrong direction. They imposed new rules on coal and natural gas plants and pursued green energy mandates that put radical climate activism ahead of affordable, abundant, and dependable power.
A reliable grid can’t be built by shutting down the most dependable sources of baseload power to achieve a radical political objective. Instead, we should be producing more American energy, approving pipelines and power plants, and keeping the lights on.
In Congress, I have made great progress. I secured $1.3 billion for the Energy Department’s work on small modular reactors, which can bring safe, cheap, and dependable nuclear power onto the grid. My bill, the Improving Interagency Coordination for Pipeline Reviews Act, also passed the House last year. It would streamline unnecessary bureaucratic delays in the permitting process for interstate natural gas products — critical to ensuring Americans across the country have access to affordable and reliable energy.
My approach to energy is about real people like you: the farmer who needs electricity for his chicken houses, the educators teaching our children, the doctor treating cancer patients and the soldiers at Fort Bragg whose mission doesn’t stop when the power goes out.
While we can’t choose when the next energy emergency happens, and whether that threat comes from gunfire, a cyberattack, a hurricane or bitter cold, we can choose to be ready. I will keep working in Congress to protect our grid, unleash American energy and keep the lights on for you.
• Rep. Richard Hudson represents North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District and serves as chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.
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