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GRID WATCHDOG RAMPS UP EFFORT TO ASSESS HUAWEI THREAT: The utility industry’s top reliability watchdog will be stepping up its game in the coming weeks to assess the threat that Chinese products pose to the U.S. power grid.
The North American Electric Reliability Corporation will be issuing a “Level 2 Alert” soon in response to suspicions that China’s leading telecommunications firm, Huawei, could be inserting malicious software through it devices into utility company operations. Members of Congress raised concerns about the threat with NERC earlier this year.
The alert is one of a suite of actions the reliability regulator is taking to address potential supply-chain threats stemming from the use of Chinese products by the industry.
“It is one of the major focus areas for us … to really understand the risks embedded through foreign-made components,” CEO Jim Robb said Wednesday at NERC’s offices in Washington.
Telecommunications hardware provides a gateway to access passwords and other crucial information companies use to operate the grid, providing an opportunity for a nation state to wage a cyberattack against critical infrastructure.
The alert begins the process of gathering information from utility companies to understand the extent to which they are dependent on Huawei telecommunications hardware in their day-to-day operations.
The alert follows the Commerce Department’s order last month blacklisting Huawei telecommunication products, which has suffered pushback from U.S. companies and the Chinese. The ban still allows for products from the company to be used in the U.S. depending on where it was manufactured and other restrictions. And it doesn’t ban Huawei devices already in use.
Drone attacks: NERC will also seek more information on the industry’s use of Chinese-manufacturerd drones. The utility industry uses drones to monitor outages and patrol the grid for problems or even sabotage. Robb said that there are real fears about drones “being used in a malicious way.”
Why NERC matters: NERC was chartered by Congress in 2005 to monitor the reliability of the grid with mandatory and enforceable standards that the industry must follow or face steep fines overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The watchdog’s activities have grown over the last two decades to include guarding the grid from cyber and physical attacks.
More standards coming: The NERC board approved a report last month on regulatory actions the agency can take to shore up security for grid access controls. These controls enable electricity to be delivered to customers along the multi-state wholesale power grid. NERC will be launching a new formal information-gathering process with industry to better inform its actions on July 2, Robb explained.
The data will give the agency more information on the level of the vulnerability.
Other threats: NERC will also be closely examining the threat posed to the grid by electro-magnetic pulse, or EMP, attacks. EMP is generated by the detonation of a nuclear weapon high in the Earth’s atmosphere over the intended target, and has the ability to wipe out the entire U.S. grid in a single blow.
(If you want more, check out this pretty good explainer CNN ran in 2011 when Newt Gingrich brought up the threat of an EMP attack in a GOP presidential primary debate.)
Robb says NERC will be reviewing the science of an EMP attack with a special task force to develop the right regulatory response. Robb hopes to announce by the end of the year what standards the agency should develop in response to EMP.
The next meeting on EMP will take place in July at NERC’s national headquarters in Atlanta.
NERC will be hosting a national grid attack exercise called GridEx in November. The exercise will simulate an attack by an unnamed nation on the U.S. grid.
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DEMOCRATIC DEBATE GIVES CLIMATE CHANGE TIME, BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR SPECIFICS: The first of two Democratic debates this week devoted record time to climate change — about seven minutes — but the format made it difficult for the 10 participating candidates to distinguish themselves on specific policies.
Activist groups complained that climate change got pushed to the middle of the second hour of the debate after moderators had hyped a pending climate question. Moderator Chuck Todd had foreshadowed a pending question on the topic as the “big one.”
To no one’s surprise, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, the climate-obsessed candidate, got the first question.
Moderator Rachel Maddow pressed for specifics about Inslee’s climate agenda, but he was provided little opportunity for that when she followed up by asking if his plan would “save Miami,” a coastal city vulnerable to sea level rise.
Inslee responded by running through his stump speech, declaring that only he would ensure climate change is “the top priority of the United States,” and warning “we are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change and last that can do something about it.”
Carbon tax gets some shine: Moderators than asked follow-up questions, directed at various candidates, on carbon pricing and how to pay for climate mitigation.
John Delaney, a former congressman from Maryland, jumped at the opportunity to tout bipartisan carbon tax legislation he introduced in 2018 that would return the revenue to taxpayers.
“All the economists agree that a carbon pricing mechanism works,” he said. “You just have to do it right. You can’t put a price on carbon, raise energy prices, and not give the money back to the American people.”
A surprising pivot to sustainable farming: Beto O’Rourke, the former Texas congressman, referenced his plan to spend $5 trillion on clean energy investments, while also describing the under-the-radar role of the agriculture sector in decarbonization efforts.
“We’re going to free ourselves from a dependence on fossil fuels, and we’re going to put farmers and ranchers in the driver’s seat, renewable and sustainable agriculture, to make sure that we capture more carbon out of the air and keep more of it in the soil, paying farmers for the environmental services that they want to provide,” he said.
Climate change and the economy: Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, a centrist candidate like Delaney, re-directed a climate question asked of him by warning Democrats “are not connecting to the working class people.”
Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the highest-polling candidate in the debate, weaved climate change into her responses throughout the debate, casting the issue as an economic opportunity as part of a broader industrial policy.
She said the economy is “doing great for giant oil companies that want to drill everywhere, just not for the rest of us who are watching climate change bear down upon us.” She hyped a “$23 trillion market coming for green products,” suggesting the U.S. should be leading that manufacturing effort.
“We need to go tenfold in our research and development on green energy going forward,” Warren said.
Climate the biggest threat: Climate change got another mention at the end of the debate, as four candidates, asked to name the biggest geopolitical threat facing the country, named climate change (some also listed other issues). Those candidates were O’Rourke, Warren, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, and Julián Castro, the former secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
LARGEST EAST COAST REFINERY DECIDES TO SHUT DOWN AFTER FIRE: The largest refinery on the East Coast is slated to close and be sold after a large explosion and fire almost a week ago devastated the Philadelphia complex.
Philadelphia Energy Solutions CEO Mark Smith said Wednesday that the company “made the difficult decision” to begin shutting down the facility, which is located directly within the city and near residential neighborhoods.
“While our teams include some of the most talented people in the industry, the recent fire at the refinery complex has made it impossible for us to continue operations,” Smith added.
Read more from John’s coverage here.
INDUSTRY, GREENS, FORMER LAWMAKERS LAUNCH ADVISORY COUNCIL ON DIRECT AIR CAPTURE: A coalition of industry, environmental groups, and former lawmakers of both parties announced the formation of a new advisory council Thursday designed to advance opportunities to use direct air capture technology to reduce emissions.
Direct air capture is costly and unproven, but scientists say it and other carbon removal technologies are needed to reduce emissions consistent with international goals.
The Direct Air Capture Advisory Council, spearheaded by the Bipartisan Policy Center, seeks to support the development of direct air capture technology by promoting “the most important federal policy actions that would facilitate cost improvements and deployment.”
Members of the group include Former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi; Roxanne Brown, legislative director at United Steel Workers; Former Rep. Carlos Curbelo of Florida; Former Democratic Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota; Marty Durbin, former executive vice president of the American Petroleum Institute; Dan Lashof, vice president at World Resources Institute; and others.
EPA REVERSES ITSELF AGAIN ON PROPOSED PEBBLE MINE: The EPA said Thursday it is reconsidering whether the Obama administration was correct to propose water pollution restrictions against the proposed gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay that have prevented it from being built since 2014. The developers of the proposed Pebble Mine have asked EPA to lift the Clean Water Act restrictions.
The mine is going through a permitting process with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A flip of a flip-flop: But its ability to secure permitting had been precarious after former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt issued a surprise announcement in 2018 that the proposed mine would harm the area’s natural resources. Pruitt’s decision reversed a prior determination he made, where he had begun a process of undoing the Obama administration’s attempt to block the mine.
Pruitt’s new decision left in place the Obama administration’s block of the project.
The Obama administration denied the mine a permit for years because of the impact it could have on water quality and the number of salmon in the area that indigenous populations rely upon.
But now, the EPA under Administrator Andrew Wheeler wants to restart a review of the Obama administration decision, rather than maintaining it, arguing the prior administration stopped the project preemptively, without allowing the permitting process to finish.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, chairwoman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said she supports EPA’s latest reversal of policy, but is not ready to say whether she supports the project, pending the completion of the permitting process.
“I have never supported preemptive restrictions for any project in Alaska,” Murkowski said. “I continue to reserve judgment about the Pebble mine and am closely following the permitting process to determine whether it can avoid harming Bristol Bay’s world-class fishery.
The Rundown
Reuters Weaning US power sector off fossil fuels would cost $4.7 trillion, study says
New York Times As coal fades, natural gas becomes the climate battle ground for utilities
Axios Under investor pressure, Exxon gets into carbon removal technology
Bloomberg OPEC member fans out to Australia and Canada in global gas push
Calendar
FRIDAY | June 28
8 a.m., 1200 New York Avenue NW. The American Association for the Advancement of Science holds a symposium on “Beyond Electricity: Climate Change and the 75 percent Problem,” focusing on challenges in mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in sectors such as industry, transportation and agriculture.
