GRID WAR GAMES CRASH SOCIAL MEDIA: A government exercise meant to test the nation’s response to attacks against the nation’s power grid had the most trouble, not from simulated hackers or bomb attacks, but from its massive stream of simulated newscasts, Facebook and Twitter feeds.

• Largest attack exercise: The utility industry’s grid security watchdog, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, issued its first report on the GridEx IV exercise Friday, showing it to be its largest grid and infrastructure security event so far.

• Adding realism gets difficult: To add to the realism of the war games, the two-day event in November had its own simulated newscasts and social media feeds. It began including traditional and social media in its last GridEx event in 2015. But the expanded array of social media and tweets in last year’s exercise almost proved to be too much to handle, according to the report.

• Crashing the system: The problem stemmed from realistic newscasts competing for space on the same server with social media, which nearly broke the entire system.

The media platform was used to “imitate” social media, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs, in addition to traditional media such as television, newspapers, and radio.

The platform began to buckle under the pressure of juggling both network news and social media.

• What did the attacks look like? “We give them an A-Team scenario” that makes it incredibly hard for utilities to cope with the level of attack, said Bill Lawrence, director of NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, on a Friday call.

• Describing the attacks: The newscasts and tweets began to flow on day one of the Nov. 15-16 exercise, in which unnamed “adversaries launched coordinated physical attacks at predetermined sites using vehicles to deliver explosive packages to damage and disable generation and transmission facilities.” Meanwhile, industry staff were seeing cyber attacks across the system.

• Fog of war: Lawrence suggested one of the functions of the social media component is to create the fog of war and escalate confusion. “We live in a world of social media that our adversaries can take advantage of” to “scare” and misinform the population, he said.

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TRUMP URGED TO IMPOSE DEADLINE FOR FIXING ETHANOL MANDATE: The fight between the ethanol industry and independent refiners over the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard won’t disappear over Congress’ two-week recess.

• Congress vs. Trump: Sources tell John that the new wrinkle in the talks is trying to find a way in which the White House and Congress can address the issue together, instead of against one another.

Congress doesn’t want the White House to act administratively, asking Trump to back off while they seek to fix the ethanol mandate with legislation.

Refiners than’t blend ethanol into the fuel supply say they are having to pay exorbitant prices for credits that allow them to abide by the Renewable Fuel Standard. But the ethanol industry says they shouldn’t be given a pass.

• Best to include White House: One source who has been talking to both congressional leaders and the administration says a path in which the White House plays a role in getting Congress to act would be best.

The source says there is “clearly a desire by the Trump administration to address the compliance costs” faced by refiners, while maintaining the president’s stated support for the ethanol industry.

• Hitting both goals: Achieving both goals is still best done through legislation, the sources tells John. But that being said, the difficulties of moving legislation are huge. That’s where Trump could be most effective by imposing a deadline.

• Deadline: The White House could give Congress until 2019 to act. If lawmakers do nothing, Trump could move on implementing measures to reduce the costs on refiners, while helping the ethanol industry blend more of its product into the fuel supply — the “win-win” plan offered by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.

• 99 counties of ethanol: Meanwhile, Iowa Republican Sen. Joni Ernst has made ethanol a key part of her 99-county tour of her home state during the recess.

The senator has been pushing back against Cruz’s proposal, which would upset demand for one of her state’s top exports — corn ethanol.

Trump is said to be weighing Cruz’s proposal to waive refiners’ obligations under the program to blend corn ethanol.  

Ernst tweeted that one of her first stops on the tour was a “productive visit to the Foundation Analytical Lab in Cherokee County to learn more about their work with ethanol plants around the country and important biofuel research.”

EPA POISED TO ANNOUNCE REJECTION OF OBAMA-ERA VEHICLE FUEL STANDARDS: The EPA is expected to formally declare Tuesday that stricter President Barack Obama-era fuel-efficiency rules for vehicles are “not appropriate.”

• Friendly territory: EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt plans to visit a Virginia Chevrolet dealership on Tuesday to make the announcement, according to Reuters and the New York Times. He must sign papers making his decision official by Sunday.

The EPA declined Friday to comment on Pruitt’s plans. An EPA spokesman said “a final determination will be signed by April 1.”

Automakers have asked for more flexibility to meet fuel-efficiency requirements, but are wary of a significant rollback that could spark a fight with California, which is allowed to have its own standards..

• Rejecting Obama: Pruitt is expected to say the Obama administration’s fuel-economy rules for cars and light-duty trucks, such as pickups and sport utility vehicles, must be revised for model years 2022 to 2025, although the agency won’t immediately propose new requirements. Obama’s standards would require automakers to nearly double the average fuel economy of new cars and trucks to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

RUNDOWN

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