President-elect Trump should put Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the current president’s energy chief, on “speed dial” for help on everything from securing the grid from cyberattacks to dealing with Iran, the top Democrat on the Senate energy committee said Friday.
Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., made the comment at an Energy Department conference held on Capitol Hill to release its final major set of recommendations on meeting the challenges faced by the nation’s vast electrical grid.
“Thank you, Secretary Moniz, I hope you aren’t going far. I hope the next president-elect will have you on speed dial as it relates to these issues,” said Cantwell. She said Moniz was vital in the negotiations with Iran by the Obama administration on nuclear security, and in efforts to fight the threat of attack on the nation’s electric grid.
Cantwell noted that Moniz’s two quadrennial energy reviews, and the reports’ recommendations, are more important than ever given the worries about cyberattacks and the recent discussion taking place over the Russian hacking scandal.
“So much of the discussion that is facing us now in the halls of Congress … means the Congress should hurry to implement” Moniz’s energy recommendations, Cantwell said.
Moniz’s final report points out the need to secure the electrical grid from web-based attacks as the grid becomes more interconnected with digital technologies and the Internet. The report recommends greater national security authority to be given to the Department of Energy to deal with security threats to the power grid.
Moniz, a well-respected energy expert and nuclear physicist, said he wasn’t sure if he would be on speed dial, but that he was confident Cantwell and her committee will take these latest recommendations on improving the grid to heart. Trump has nominated former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head the agency after Moniz.
Moniz quipped that the “silver lining” in not passing a comprehensive energy bill last year would be that the energy committee now has more time to include the new recommendations in the bill.
