HR.2417 The Shield Act & HR.668 Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act

[Bright Garlick]

I know a lot of folks have talked here about EMP and major solar events and I have previously talked a lot about these events on my old blog and videos but i thought it was worth some exploration of the measures the US federal government is taking towards protecting the US power grid.

The 2 key pieces of legislation are :HR.2417 Shield Act (one of many shield acts) or the ‘Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act’ :
http://www.shieldact.com/about-the-shield-act/ & http://www.shieldact.com/httpwww-gpo...3hr2417ih-pdf/It's update HR.668 Secure High-voltage Infrastructure for Electricity from Lethal Damage Act :
http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h668/show


From HR.2417 :

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) According to the Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack (in this Act referred to as the ‘EMP Commission Report’), the society and economy of the United States are ‘critically dependent upon the availability of electricity.’.
(2) According to the EMP Commission Report, ‘continued electrical supply is necessary for sustaining water supplies, production and distribution of food, fuel, communications, and everything else that is part of our economy’.
(3) According to the EMP Commission Report, ‘contemporary U.S. society is not structured, nor does it have the means, to provide for the needs of nearly 300 million Americans without electricity.’.
(4) According to the EMP Commission Report, due to the existing electrical system operating at or near its physical capacity, ‘a relatively modest upset to the system can cause functional collapse.’.
(5) According to the EMP Commission Report, electromagnetic pulse (in this Act referred to as ‘EMP’) is a threat to the overall electrical power system.
(6) According to the EMP Commission Report, EMP occurs both naturally, such as geomagnetic storms, and via manmade devices.
(7) According to the EMP Commission Report, while the electric infrastructure ‘has a degree of durability against . . . the failure of one or a small number of [electric] components,’ the current strategy for recovery leaves the United States ill-prepared to respond effectively to an EMP attack that would potentially result in damage to vast numbers of components nearly simultaneously over an unprecedented geographic scale.
(8) According to the EMP Commission Report, EMP ‘may couple ultimately unmanageable currents and voltages into an electrical system routinely operated with little margin and cause the collapse of large portions of the electrical system.’.
(9) According to the EMP Commission Report, a collapse of large portions of the electrical system will result in significant periods of power-outage and ‘restoration from collapse or loss of significant portions of the system [will be] exceedingly difficult.’.
(10) According to the EMP Commission Report, ‘should the electrical power system be lost for any substantial period of time . . . the consequences are likely to be catastrophic to civilian society.’.
(11) According to the EMP Commission Report, ‘the Commission is deeply concerned that [negative] impacts [on the electric infrastructure] are certain in an EMP event unless practical steps are taken to provide protection for critical elements of the electric system.’.

As many of you know those outside the prepared loop in the US government are running around in circles trying to prepare for the inevitable or at least the probable.

Of course this video has been posted here already but is well worth noting again :

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=de_SYxw9ttE

Here's some more info on the subject :
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12507
http://washingtonexaminer.com/lights...rticle/2532038
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear...magnetic_pulse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_pulse
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Ar...%2EUoEbgPl-Rjg
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/li...t/1988/CM2.htm
http://science.howstuffworks.com/e-bomb.htm
http://cryptome.org/emp.htm
http://www.theiet.org/communities/el...reat/index.cfm
http://www.empcommission.org/
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/cst/bugs_ch12.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear...e#cite_note-44
http://www.empcommission.org/docs/empc_exec_rpt.pdf
http://web.ornl.gov/sci/ees/etsd/pes...Meta-R-320.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geomagnetic_storm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro...opular_culture
http://www.theiet.org/communities/el...sturbances.cfm
http://www.theiet.org/communities/el...h-power-em.cfm
http://www.theiet.org/communities/el...rid-threat.cfm
http://www.theiet.org/communities/el...d-currents.cfm
http://offgridsurvival.com/powergrid...-gridfailures/
http://www.empreport.com/
http://forum.solarstormwatch.com/ind...o26ksmbdfnlu7&

http://www.publications.parliament.u.../1552/1552.pdf
http://www.publications.parliament.u...552/155205.htm
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/c...air-re-EMP.pdf

The UK gov has also been busy but the threat there seems less significant than in the US.

What appears unclear this stage from my own research, is how much of the globe is at risk from power grid failure due to EMP or a major solar storm and what preparations have been undertaken by countries outside of the US and the UK and what are their timelines for readiness.

If you know of any information regarding your own country's readiness, please post any relevant links below.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2247254/

Here's some info I wrote some time ago on my old blog, on preparing for just such an event. Share as you like. Scuse typos.
Preparing for severe space weather.pdf

Preparation does not mean paranoia. Life is still perfect, one moment at a time !

Best wishes to all,

Bright.

[AriG]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for_Security_Policy

Personally, I would take anything these war mongers have to say with a grain of salt.

[GreenGuy]

I take it ALL with a grain of salt, except for one thing...look outside at how we transport electrical energy. Those poles and wires are 19th-century technology, the weak link in the chain. I know some communities use underground wires but they're not a great deal more secure - one bad move with a backhoe can knock out a neighborhood for a week (ask me how I know)! It's only the greed of the established interests that have prevented us from having zero-point decades ago. I believe it's not a question of if the power will go out, but when. How is almost immaterial.

[Bright Garlick]

Really ? You would tar ALL of them with the same brush ? And ignore the entire issue ?

[GreenGuy]

Posted by Bright Garlick (here)
Really ? You would tar ALL of them with the same brush ? And ignore the entire issue ?

Um, could you explain what you mean? Or are you talking to someone else?

[Bright Garlick]

Hi greenguy. I was talking to AriG. To tar is paint over. So I was referring to painting everyone as war mongers to ignore.