The result and the American People had an extraordinary additional amount of millions of dollars. Because of the delay in the withdrawal of this contract. So i really request that we use our subpoena authority to make sure that top in the United States congress. I yield back. And my friend, i share your concerns. It sounds kind of odd what happened there, but ill talk to the chair of the subcommittee, mr. Upton and the full committee, mr. Walden, about the subpoena issue, but right now, what a privilege before the first panel leaves. And this is maybe risk of offending miss kastor. But commissioner walker, hope you go to smu saturday. Join my daughter and wife to watch a smu beat the tar of central florida. Panels dismissed. [inaudible] and well hear from executives from Utility Companies, the oil and Gas Industries and a representative of the nurses union. This is about 90 minutes. Okay second pillow, are you okay, second panel. Yall ready . And just like before, start out with Opening Statements from all the panelists followed by questions from members and i recognize thomas fanning. President and ceo of Southern Company. Hes here on behalf of electricity sub sector counsel. Tom, you have five minutes for your opening statement. Thank you. Thank you for inviting me to testify today. My name is tom fanning. I am the chairman, president , and ceo of Southern Company and past chairman of the Edison Electric institute, the association that represents all the u. S. Investorowned electric companies. Im draying you today as one of three cochairs of counsel. We collaborate closely with our colleagues from public power e utilities and rural cooperatives on escc. Im pleased to address the subcommittee and to chair the steps the electric Power Industry is taking to make Energy Infrastructure smarter and more resilient. Allowing us to continue delivering affordable and reliable power. The 2017 Hurricane Seasonhigh lights the critical importance of coordination among electric Utility Companies and other key to ensure fast and efficient recovery to customers. The electric sector faces constantly evolving threats to the energy grid. The industrys Risk Mitigation strategy emphasizes a defense and depth approach. We focus on preparation, prevention, response and recovery. With an emphasis on the isolation of and enhanced protection for critical assets. While this hearing is focuseded on storm response and recovery, its important to note that our companies do not build the energy grid or our security responses to meet only one type of threat. We must prepare and plan for them all. Whether manmade or natural, malicious or unintentional or a combination of threats. In the aftermath of such events, the industry works to identify gap, compile lessons learns and d disseminate prbest practices. Since Superstorm Sandy five years ago this week, the electric Power Industry has combined efforts across all segment of the industry and has worked with the government partners to streamline restoration efforts and to improve major threats that cause significant outages. The benefits of this coordination were viz bable over the past several months as the industry and federal government worked to prepare for and respond to the hurricanes. There is an understandable urge to compare storms. But the reality is that each storm is different. The common threads, however, are the need, a plan for response and the awesome nature of our industrys ability to respond to emergencies. Before i close, id like to underscore during the most recent, the ecc held daily coordination calls to address critical operational issues such as identifying specialized equipment needs, removing temporary flight restrictions for both manned and Unmanned Aircraft to assist with ariel damage assessments, coordinating how industry could reenter and reaccek disaster areas and coordinate erats with the oil and natural gas, telecommunications, transportation and water and waste water sectors. Rick perry was on every call and frequently joined by other officials such as elaine duke. These calls were essential to identifying address Critical Issues in Recovery Efforts. The reeblty of the energy grid were of paramount importance. When the power depose out, our customers expect it will be on soon. The sector will strive to meet those expectations, to invest in smainfrastructure and the grit the amazing men and women who make the energy grid workd day n and day out. Its showing great leadership and we look forward to working with you on this critical topic. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify on behalf of the sec. And i look forward to your questions. Thank you, mr. Fanning and the chair is going to call upon mr. Julio rimer, the Water Authority suffered devastation from two hurricanes. Irma and henry. Opening statement. Thank you. Good day, mr. Chair and other noble members of the subcommittee of energy. I am an executive director and chief executive officer of the Virgin Island authority. On behalf of the governor of the Virgin Islands, honor b rabble stacy plas ket, member of the 32nd legislature of the Virgin Islands. I thank you for the invitation to provide testimony and Energy Challenges to face the Virgin Islands as a result of the passage of irma and maria. As you are all aware, in september of 2017, the Virgin Islands faced a phenomenon two backtoback category 5 hurricanes within two weeks. A category 5 hurricane has sustained winds of greater than 157 miles per hour. With cases in hurricane irma, winds were sustained about 190 miles an hour. The distribution facilities were plain and simple. Destroyed by the catastrophic winds of two hurricanes. Do to irmas impact on september 6 fth, 2017, st. Thomas, st. John elect rical Distribution System suffered significant damage. St. Thomas system sustained damages of approximately 80 . St. John approximately 90 . Ward island, 90 and haser island, 90 . Approximately two weeks later on tuesday, september 19th, 2017, maria caused damage to almost 60 of the transmission and Distribution System on st. Croix. The islands did not receive significant damage from Hurricane Maria. The to date, the authority has approximately 536 line men and other related off island personnel in the territory restoring the electrical structure. Fema and cruise ships have been brought in to provide sleeping quarters for the off island crews since many hotels and guest houses remain closed. By far, the biggest challenge that one and i would like to focus on today is funding the daytoday operations and hardening of the future storms. Without question, these hurricanes have decimated the finances. While we appreciate the assistance that has and will be forthcoming to rebuild the systems that were damage, one of the primary conditicerns is thee thety to meet prestorm expenses. Prior to hurricanes, revenues were approximately 25. 6 million per month. Since the hurricanes and since were unable to provide service and build customer, revenue has dropped to below 2 million per month. They have incured expenses such as payroll, operation and maintenance. That service and previously executed contracts and Financing Agreements it must pay. To address this dramatic shortfall, the authority has sought, the communities asked alone. Any support or assistance that you can offer in this regard is appreciated. One of the evident take aways from the two category 5 hurricanes and significant damages to the Distribution System territory wide is that there is not, there is an urgent need to rebuild the transmission systems, but to harden it in a point where its resilient to wind storms. Wapa believes it would reduce its post Storm Hurricane period by Critical Infrastructure and by moving away from wooden poles and introducing come pposite po on a major distribution kir is sit. Wapa must also address its grid. Since its too suh september bab acceptable to damage, each micro grid would be a localized group of electrical facilities that would work in tandem with fac e facilities or disconnection, where they can stand alone. In event the power is interrupted for my reason, the micro grid would function, generating its own power at this point. Currently, you have in the works on the island of st. Croix thats going to go up for bid and that would provide Battery Storage to our airport facilities, waste treatment facility, correctional facility and basically a Police Station at this point. What we actually are attempting to go here is a utility, is to harden our system and make it more resilient. I would like to thank you for the opportunity to before the subcommittee on energy and im available to answer any questions that you have on this matter. Thank you, mr. Robert. I heard what irma didnt destroy yes, it did. Chair now calls upon mr. Chet thompson. President and ceo of petro chemical manufactures. You have five minutes for opening statement. Thank you, vice chairman, rush, members of the subcommittee. Im the president and ceo of the american fuel and petro chemical manufacturers. Afpm represents the refining and petro chemical industries. Our members represent 120 refineries, 120 facilities that represents 98 of production capacity. More than half is is located along the gulf coast. Harvey ill pacted our facilities hard. Hurricane irma impact ed the th fuel simply chain, but largely in florida while nates impact on our assets was rather minimal. More importantly, the hurricanes, combination of hurricanes harvey, irma, and maria were devastating to the people of the gulf coast, particularly in houston and the beaumont area, florida, and puerto rico. Many of those impacted are part of our extended oil and gas family. Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to those struggling to recover and we stand by them and will help them any way we can. As a result of this personal impact, today the subject of todays hearing is particularly important to our industry. So id like to limit my time to only three key points of my written testimony. First, by and large, the u. S. Refining and Petrol Industries weathered the storm well and proved to be very resilient. This diz not happen by accident. Rather, a result of lots of hard work and preparation and with the help of an incredibly dedicated workforce and local and state responders. Theyre the true heroes coming out of these events. If you wanted to draw up a storm that could reek the most havoc on our industry, harvey was it. It hit Corpus Christi as a category 4 storm. Moved up the east coast. Stalled largely over houston, which is the epicenter of the refining and petrol kek cal industries. It dumped over 60 inches of rain in some locations and more than a trillion gallons of water in texas and louisiana. At its peak, it knocked 24 refineries offline. 25 of all u. S. Refining capacity. It had a similar effect on our members. It knocked 60 of u. S. Capacity down. Thats 80 of the capacity found in the gulf region. Harvey also had a Significant Impact on the entire fuel supply chain. Shut down port, pipeline, terminal, rail and gasoline stations. Our facilities couldnt get feed into their plants and we certainly couldnt get products out. This had the potential to be catastrophic. With the fuels and petrol chemical supply chain, but in the end, it wasnt. Just two weeks after harvey made land fall, 20 of the 24 facilities restart ed and they made substantial progress during this period as well. Again, this was not by accident. Facilities were prepared and had applied many of the Lessons Learned in the aftermath of previous storms like katrina and rita. Trex, our facilities developed more sophisticated plan, improved storm monitoring, hardened Critical Infrastructure. Elevated pumps and generators. Procured spare parts to be ready to move for Recovery Efforts after the storm. We upgraded our i. T. Systems to especially us locate our employees and help us have the stance we needed. All of this made a difference. Came back online much faster than we did after prior storms. Second point id like to make, federal and state response was significantly approved compared to previous storms. One of the lessons we have learned is that we have to better coordinate with federal, state, and local governments, over the last few year, weve been working hard in that regard to improve our relationships. The results during harvey were excellent. We were in Constant Contact before, during, and after the storms, the improved coordination was most evident in the quick review and approval of fuel waivers unlike in prior storms. Helping us get fuel to where it was needed quickly and efficiently. Our federal and state partners, particularly secretary perry, administrator pruitt, governors abbott and scott deserve kudos for these improvements. If i had to identify the one area that could be improved it would be better communication by our government to consumers about the fuel supply chain. And the challenges that often accompany events like hurricanes. For example, the government could help us explain the timelines for bringing facilities back online and getting prget i products back to distributes and marketers. And it could help us to scourge panic buying that also seems to accompany these types of events. Third and final, our companies will work with federal and state authorities to identify and apply lessons learns. Although we did farewel well, theres no doubt there will be thipgs we can improve on. We would caution anyone to resolve to any knee jerk reactions and conclusions. Particularly those few events before full assessments are in. I thank everyone for my time and the opportunity to speak today and id like to express our thanks and appreciate for the incredible work for the first responders. So thank you and im happy to answer any questions. Thank you, mr. Thompson. The chair now calls upon mr. Max mcbrayer. You have five minutes, sir. Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. Te retail community. My name is max mcbrayer, im the chief Financial Officer of racetrack petroleum. Im testifying today on behalf of National Association of Convenience Stores, the society of independent gasoline marketers of america. Racetrack is a family owned business, headquartered in atlanta, georgia, operating more than 450 Convenience Stores across 12 states, employ iing nearly 9,000 team members. 2017 Hurricane Season had a devastating effect on americas fuels infrastructure and markets. During harvey, flooding damage, more than a quarter of u. S. Mining cappsesty and shut down the pipelines. Hurricane irma led to increasing demand further causing prices to roiz sharply. Natural disaster directly and severe ly affect the retail fues market. Margin zone fuel sales range between two and 20 cents and retailers must constantly react to ensure their prices remain competitive. During any Severe Weather event, wholesale fuel prices become more volatile as the market tries to assess and anticipate supply availability. These unwelcome changes occur, retailers respond to meet their cost. Due to the infrastructure damage, compliant fuel inventories became strained, leading to escalating whole ssa prices. Prices generally reflect prices. In this instance, retailers made individual decisions on whether to increase prices and risk losing customers or take losses by keeping prices low and not covering the increased wholesale cost. Despite the tough situations, the fuel market was supported of the actions of the federal and state government. Is governments worked with us to deal the the issues before and after the hurricanes. Communication and coordination initiatives were particularly important. For example, the governors of texas and florida held Conference Calls with industry and government stakeholders that were where they listened to concerns about rendered prompt assistance. In florida, specifically, the Governors Office waived certain restrictions to highways, helping prioritize shipment, coordinated escorts for fuel trucks and ships. At the federal level. Faster response efforts spanned a number of agencies, which ultimately issued more than 30 waivers to help deal with fuel supply issues. A a spectacular importance was the waives of hours of Service Limitations for drivers, providing assistance to affected areas. These waivers were the difference between getting fuel to our customers and reasonably affordable and timely manner and not being able to supply customers with the fuel they needed. In response to state petitions, federal agencies eased restrictions on the type of product retailers could sale. For example, epa temporarily waived certain reformulated gasoline requirements under the clean air act. Despite the major disruptions, the fuel Distribution System after the hurricanes, the impact on consumers and the economy was still less than what occurred with hurricanes katrina and rita in 2005. Thats because the government worked with the private sector to respond appropriately. There are still important lessons to be learned, however. Sips theres no good coordinating effort to make, make sure consumers were informed of the status of fuel supplies via social media. As the hurricanes approached, we believed much of the panic about fuel availability caused a significant and unnecessary pool on the available fuel supply. Panic lessons when information was shared with the b public. Anything that can be done to remove hurdles for transportation would speed up efforts in the wake of future hurricanes. Racetrack plooefs believes the collaboration was critical to the successful response efforts. We are proud to have been able to serve the communities that we operate in and i thank you for the opportunity to provide this testimony. Thank you. The chair now calls upon the audible ramon davis who is now an attorney at law, a former distinguished member of the senate of puerto rico. You have five minutes, sir. Thank you, chairman, Ranking Member rush, members of the subcommittee. Ooi had the privilege to serve e people of puerto rico of san juan and chairman of the committee on energy. I currently practice law in the course of puerto rico. I want to thank the subcommittee for this opportunity to this course. Puerto ricos Energy Challenges. I have personally suffered, problems associated with a lack of electricity for more than 40 days. The Current Energy crisis is destroy i destroying our economy and way of life. I submit to you that most of the challeng challenges. They are manmade. It was already bankrupt, fragile and useless entity before maria made landfall. Of the governments issues. We must be alert about disaster who may try to take advantage and profit off of her peoples misery. When i take flights from san juan to complain about prepa, i come before you with proposals to help us transform puerto ricos energy model. Energy equals life. As most Puerto Ricans understood after maria, the lack of a Smart Energy System has the potential of killing people. And destroying the economy. The death toll of hurricane has not been properly disclosed by the government of puerto rico. When working hard to turn the lights back on as soon as possible, policymakers must also think longterm. A plan to transform puerto ricos energy model by significant support funding is the right course of action. Information are transforming the energy industry. Puerto rico must break fru from the centralized model and people of puerto rico are reserved and model where by more and more customers are able to agree on a new emergency model. Micro grids for key governme government will also help Recovery Efforts after future stor storms. Include micro grids, however, a federal mandate to include micro grids in a new nornlg model will certainly help. Its also been pointed out that the act restricts them from rebuilding the grid as it was. Perhaps you may be able to change that by the old and now collapsed grid is not able to deal with the technical challenges that embraces Renewable Power. However, as i have said, countless policymakers agree that just referring the old obsolete grid will be a waste of taxpayer dollars. The only enter thety able to finance this key project. Lets talk about the the scandal is a sad example of the incompetent prepa. They awarded a bid contract to an unknown company with just two employees. What you have done from the start, request the mutual aid offer by private and public electric companies. Where was prepas drawing board . Nobody really knows, but i submit to you that this white fish business is very handful to puerto rico. My time is almost up. 9 million debt. Congress and Oversight Board must create a Financial Solution for the debt. Aggressive restructuring of the debt combined with new bones and continued to overprepa will be a way to solve is is one of my top problems is to finish up the most efficient way to transform the energy model of puerto rico is by given the proper resources to puerto ricos independent energy commission. Independent is key. For our recovery. And in order to guarantee a threat to build a new energy grid are properly used and allocate d, i propose that the revitalization of puerto rico and the Puerto Rico Energy commission be given Sole Authority over prepa. Prepa shall cease to exist on the present form. Urgent the lights back home. Thank you. Thank you. We save the best for last. Opening statements from miss cathy kennedy. National Vice President of the National Nurses united. Welcome. Vice chairman, olsen, Ranking Member rush and members of the subcommittee, good afternoon and thank you for inviting National Nurses to take part in this hearing. Im Catherine Kennedy and i have have been a registered nurse for 37 years. I currently serve as a Vice President of National Nurses united, the Largest Union in the country. I submit the testimony from nnus behalf. From october 4th through 18th, i served on a voluntary deployment to puerto rico with nnus register Nurse Response Network to assist with marias disaster relief. 50 nurses deployed with rnr into puerto rico among 300 skilled Union Members organized by aflcio. Nnu nurses very much appreciate you holding this hearing and providing us the opportunity to share our account of the Public Health kriss we witnessed. Nnus full report on the conditions of puerto rico is attached to my written testimony. The lack of electricity is endangering peoples lives and leading to preventable death and illness. I was the lead rn for the Health Care Teams on the deployment. I helped to organize nurses into teams and with a map of the island, we tracked the Public Health assessment of each community we visited. Evaluating whether people had access to food, water, and health care. Their basic lives conditions and medical needs. Time and time again, we saw that lack of power exacerbated the disaster or created new ones. Basic medical services were down in many areas and not fully functioning in others. An acute Public Health crisis has developed. Without electricity, people with diabetes and hiber tepgs cannot refrenlg rate their medications. In luisa, nurses worked with those who had to put their insulin in bowls of tepid water. Pharmacies could not refrenlg rate their medications either. They also cannot access Computer Systems which store prescription orders, therefore, patients were scrambling to find doctors to write new prescriptions so they can give them to the pharmacies. Many doctors offices were closed partly because the grid is still down and accessing reliable generators and fuel for them is nearly impossible. Pharmacies also cannot access Insurance Information so patients are being asked to pay full price for medications. Moe people dont have cash and if they had money in the bank, they cant access it because the atms and the banking processes systems are also down. As long as the power grid is down, homts cannot function. Fuel is hard to access. With generators, hospitals cant perform certain procedures and tests which use large amount of energy and at one hospital, they could not perform mris as long as they only relied on generators. Without reliable power, the problems of accessing food and water are amplified. The simple act of purchasing food and water, when it is available, is nearly impossible. Stores cant take credit cards and atms dont work. Bank services that normally take minutes now take hours. The people of puerto rico are unable to refrenlg rate and cook their food. They must rely on canned and processed foods, which are high in sodium. Access to food in Rural Communities are especially difficult. As long as there is no power, people will be relying on relief organizations to provide food and water for them. Electricity is also needed to run waste Water Treatment plants and to restore the functioning of water utilities. Without clean, running water, nurses have witness eed the beginnings of multiple outbreaks of water borne diseases that can be fatal if not treated in time. Then there are problems accessing fema aid. People cant access femas online notices and aid application. For those that are able to apply for aid, they are told that necessary follow up communication will be sent either by text or email. People dont have power right now. Theyre not going to receive any follow up for their fema applications. Nnu urges congress to use oversight and appropriation authority to ensure fema and other u. S. Agencies respond to this crisis effectively. It is unacceptable that citizens of the richest country on earth have been denied necessary humanitarian aid and left to die. With a growing climate crisis, relief to puerto rico must come in the form of responsible measures that can build a Sustainable Energy future. Thank you again for giving nnu the time to share the stories of the tepeople and places in puer rico. That we cannot and must not forget. Thank you. Thank you. Now is the fun time. Questions from the members. My first questions are for you, mr. Thompson. First of all, i have to say congratla congratulatio congratulations. I was there for ike, allison, harvey. Maybe cellulsimilar taps wii wa that storm, you guys came roaring back. So congratlaces. You guys got much better preparing for a hurricane or national disaster. Yall learned how to not fully shut down, but keep it warm so to speak. Keep it going where its not br br brisk of some sort of breach. Once the storm clear, get it up like that. I want to talk about how you prepare a firing thats directly in the path of a tomorrow like harvey to make sure to get that thing back on there as quickly as possible. Thank you for the question. I addressed some of this in my opening remarks. In our able ility to weather th storm, one was our incredible workforce. We had thousands of people that were riding out these facilities when their own families and houses were in pearl, they were keeping our facilities above water and ready to go. Also, lots of preparation. We have been working on storm prep for years. Working with the National Petroleum counsel and doe and dhs. This was not something we prepared for just a few weeks ago. We took all the Lessons Learned from prior storms and put them in the action. We elevated what we could. We had much better storm tracking cape bababilities now,e could identify where the storm was going and when we had to bring the systems down. Our facilities will come down when safety demands it so when they realized they werent going to be hit as hard, could remain warm and ready to go. Some of the facilities had to come way down so i would end by saying a lot of hard work, a lot of dedication and we can applaud our employees enough. I know it just goes with the territory. We have these big tanks that have floating tops an the water got so high, almost five feet of rain overcame the capability. My question is what are yall doing to prevent and respond to the spills before they happen . Its amazing what happened. It was such a stellar performance, but how do you make it even better Going Forward . Well, i can assure you that every company that was impacted and those that werent directly impacted assessing how we responded. We bring our members together, share information and well work to improve. Every storm, we learn from the prior one to get better. Thank you. Question for you, mr. Mcbrayer. I was driving around pretty much for a week after harvey hit and you could find gasoline. Some shops were shut down. My question is was that because of power . Because of lack of supply, lack of gasoline or lack of the employees being able to get to work because of all the floods . Whats going on there . Again, you could find it, but some stations werent up and returning and as you mentioned, there was not price gaunlging, but people were panicking there would be no gasoline. All of this things you mentioned are correct. Some is due to the fact that we rely upon the employees living in the affected area and like any good employer, we are more concerned about their life at home and being sure theyre prepared to meet the needs of their family before they return to work. We do have problems with electrical supply. Getting generators into our stores and specifically was quite challenging and the houston area because of the amount of flood ng the roadways. There are some stores that choose not to buy at the cost. Tend to go up during these disasters. From most everyone is working hard. Yes, our consumers what we made need to do. In the south houston, some flooding that were so how about the role of uad in these disaster frs oil and all the operation with the petrol sfrindustry. Those things are working and for some reason, they were shut down because there was some kichnd o danger. That was just not right to do. It may have prevented a breach. Litt little idea about gas operations they can help out . We dont impact oil and gas particular ly, but you know, in response to any storm, there should be a comprehensive plan thats undertaken, really driven by the local authorities. I was listening to your prior panel. Very interesting in that every utility works with for example, in georgia, they would work with not only the federal agency, fema, but with gema. And within that context, all Critical Infrastructure is evaluated with respect to the approaching threat. Therefore, we develop a set of priorities and essentially a se response we iwo jima as to how to proride the best benefit Going Forward. I cant speak to missouri or whatever the impact is there, but i would assume theyve taken those things into account. Chair now recognizes the gentlemen from illinois. Mr. Rush, for five minutes. I want to thank you, mr. Chairman. Miss kennedy, your testimony has been very, very amazing testimony. Im amazed that the breadth of the tragedies that are occurring even as we speak in puerto rico and im amazed at the length of proper attention. Our government and their response to this american tragedy. In puerto rico. Theres some with the official death toll some say there were 61 casualties. Yet the Puerto Rican Department of Public Health, Public Safety, rather, confirmed that over 900 bodies have been authorized for cremation. Since Hurricane Maria tore through that island. On september 20th. And that 900 figure includes deaths related to a lack of oxygen and other fatalities appear to be due to a power outage. Some say the news fatalities should just be considered natural deaths. Do you concur with this definition from your experience . You spent time there. Do you believe that the death toll from Hurricane Maria is actually 51 or is is it closer to 900 . Or is it somewhere in between . We were there from october 4th through the 18th. As i said in my testimony, what the nurses saw when you get outside of san juan, they were cut off from electricity, from communication, from everything. So when you ask me what was the death toll, do i believe whether its 51 versus 911 or somewhere in between, on a personally, i think its more of the higher. You know, what we saw was we were considered almost the first ones they even saw. As it relates to food or water or any kind of communication. And through word of mouth, you know, they did say that you know the neighbor passed. Whether it was through leptospirosis or natural causes. So i think it is rather on the high side. Do you have any certain insight into the actual number of fatalities and the reason for those fatalities . Yes. Basically, i agree with miss kennedy. The official death toll of 59 now is very superficial and misleading. My personal experience, i have talk with those sense of family, friends, that have told me, oh, my grandmother died. She passed because she didnt have electricity in her nursing home. Elderly people that have electricity are supply dying. Is in my view in the hundreds. So as we sit here in this committee room, there are still people who are dying in puerto rico. Simply because they have no electricity. Even today. I said in my testimony, people are dying today, not because of Hurricane Maria. Because of hurricane prepa, because they dont have electricity in their homes. I would agree. Without electricity, powithout power, you know, there are stories where patients actually go to san juan when the electricity is up and they take their nebraska lulizers and plu in so they can do the breathing treatments or they sit the in clinics where they use the oxygen there throughout the day, then they go home and theres no electricity and theyre without oxygen, without anything. Thank you. I yield back. The chair calls upon the gentleman from illinois for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Great to have you here. I want to direct some of my questions to mr. Fanning. And mr. Fanning, if the electricity went out in atlanta, georgia, who would get called . Initially, paul bowers, president of Georgia Power company, but thats a pretty clear deal. You know whats interesting in these storms, we have essentially people that run the storm activity. They are full hi empowered. To work with whatever state, local, federal government to get the lights on as fast as we can. A clear sense of priority. And they get the job done. So i still am again, puerto ricos an island. Its very difficult and i kind of wish the administration would have deployed the 82nd airborne and just had a parachute jump into a lot of the communities that dont have access at least so it would be a meal ration. And the military has even solar packs they take in afghanistan. If there was one thing i wish they would have done more than anything is really deployed. But you also heard in the last, the first panel, the fact that there was no request for help. Until five weeks later. Thats not normal. You are, you represent the electricity sub sector koord thating counsel. Isnt that something that you all do as part of that . Oh, absolutely. In fact, i would argue a especially this year, the electricity sub sector coordinating counsel was originally formed to focus on cyber and physical security. Weve added to that drem dem straited the suck oesz on those issue. Following sandy, the electric Utility Industry reorganized what we call regional mutual stance groups. And so now, under the kind of structure of the escc, we bring together really for the first time, an enhances collaboration, not only of investor owned utility responses, but also collaboration coordination with municipal utilities. We offer that up and we participate in a series of restoration activities, federal government local, and with each other and we do that also interdependent with the other kind of industries that you all were talking about in the last segment. That is telecom. Water and suer. Health care. Believe it or not, we go beyond the notion of offering stance just for the restoration of electrons. In houston particularly, my company got called on for two things that had nothing to do with electricity. One was for the humanitarian rescue effort. Within 20 minutes of a phone call, we sent forward pilots and drones to help identify where survivors and other people may be. Secondly, through alabama power, we delivered machinery that was able to operate in very high water conditions that was used to help rescue people. Thank you. And the puerto rican Power Electric authority, they are not involved in this group, are they . They work under the ages of the American Public power association, which is essentially a municipal organization. We offered help. But prepa, the state of puerto rico, for whatever reason, elected to pursue a different path, not pursue the mutual assistance rubric and really go through bilateral let me go to the elected representative, mr. Nieves. When we look back now on Lessons Learned and how we want to move forward, would you agree that we probably should look at ways in which the whole community can be helpful and develop these memorandums of understanding, where we can get joint use and Quick Response . That would be probably a pretty good Lesson Learned in this . The fact is that the American Public and i understand that electric institute offered since day one assistance to prepa. Prepa pursued another way. Its not a lack of agreement, but it was a lack of will from prepas part. And then we have the whitefish situation. Im sure were going to have time to continue to look at that. But thats believing your testimony, which i do, that is i would call that criminal negligence. And im sorry for that. My times expired, mr. Chairman, i yield back. Back to gentlewoman from florida 14, ms. Castor for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman, thank you all very much for being here. The more we hear directly from folks like you that are in the u. S. Virgin islands and puerto rico, the more disturbing it gets. And i think you can sense the outrage building from this committee over the puerto rico electric Power Authority. Mr. Nieves, are you surprised that prepa did not respond to this committee and in essence refused to appear here. Im sad to say, im not surprised. When i used to share in the energy committee, one of the things we found is their total lack of transparency. So to me, i assume this is a lack of respect for this committee, that prepa is not here on this and were you surprised to hear mr. Alexander who is the lead for the u. S. Army corps of engineers in repairing the grid in puerto rico, were you surprised to learn that he hasnt even been able to have a conversation with prepa. Sadly, im not surprised. How do we justify taxpayer dollars now going to repair a grid in puerto rico, trying to work with prepa after they refused to interact with the committee, theyre not working with the army corps of engineers. They are wasting tax pair money through this whitefish contract that has outraged so many people. And yet the need is so great on the island. How do you recommend that we move forward . Were going to have to address the prepa situation in law as soon as possible i would assume. Yes. First of all, we have to really understand and consider at the end of the day, given prepas problems, we need to think that people are dying. Our economy is dying. So how do we work around that . Or prepas lack of cooperation and transparency, my suggestion that i did in my testimony is that since Congress Already passed the promise act and the Oversight Board name a coordinator that has been appointed to take over prepa that Congress Finds a way, a mandate that federal taxpayer money to create a new energy grid be under the supervision of the coordinator of the board and the Puerto Rico Energy commission, which is an independent, nonparty, nonpartisan, and highly technical body. So you can by pass prepa and the government of puerto rico so there can be a way to get around it. This has to be we have to have a sense of urgency to do this because theyre talking about the next emergency bill maybe be may be in december, hopefully i mean, theres a lot of things on the agenda for congress in december. But this time is of the essence here. And colleagues, we simply have to find a way to at least begin to plan to build in some resiliency, get the power on, but begin to lay the groundwork for a modern electric grid and address the ineptitude of the puerto rico electric Power Authority. Lives hang in the balance. We have the experts at our fingertips. We have the technology to do this. Does congress have the capacity to act . With a sense of urgency knowing how our fellow citizens are suffering there. Thats a challenge for us. So i thank you all very much for being here. I yield back my time. Gentle lady yields back. The chair calls upon the gentleman from memberships, gregg harper for five minutes. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Congratulations to the astros. Thank you. I want to thank each of you for being here. This is stunning, the hurricanes weve had to deal with this season and certainly what has happened in puerto rico has concerned us all. So mr. Fanning, i know you mentioned that its more than just power or restoration of power. Its also telecom, water and sewer issues. Can you talk for a moment and tell us how utilities use their Communications Network to recover and respond from hurricanes and other weatherrelated events and how reliable do those Communications Networks need to be . Yeah, thank you, congressman, and thank you for your service to the great state of mississippi. Thank you. Best example of that is katrina. As you well know, i think katrina in the National Story gets told around new orleans and the breaching of the dam. The truth is in mississippi when katrina came through every light was out around mississippi power. And when you went in to try to restore that activity, the streets were unrecognizable. You couldnt even use essentially gps to find your way around. All of the telecom was out as well. We have to have an interconnected effort between telecom and electricity in order to most efficiently respond to these sorts of disasters. Southern company, as a matter of its own resilience strategy, has our own dedicated Telecom Company called southern link in which we can bring in mobile cells on wheels, towers essentially to set those things up. As i am working within the context of the esec as it relates to puerto rico, early on, and this is where the esec was not asked to help in a mutual assistance effort, but still we were working with different parts of the economy to try and bring help to that island. I called personally john donovan whos roughly the number two guy at at t as i understand it, and also at hold on. At verizon, Lowell Mcadam whos the ceo there to link together our efforts in bringing help down there. And we assured each other that between telecom and electricity we would provide every level of support, whether it was even asked for or not, to try and get that situation rectified. Congressman, it is critical. If were going to communicate with people in the field, if were going to have people in the field without telecom, we need some way to kind of communicate to get the stuff back on. Its absolutely critical. So you provided assistance in that area even though it was not requested by prepa. Thats right. In fact, ill give great kudos to the folks at fema, block long did a heck of a job. Another guy that works in dhs, chris krebs in the white house tom boss ert. All of these peoples have been champions in trying to aid the situation without a whole lot of encouragement. You know, Southern Company is right in the middle of what i guess wed call the hurricane belt. But, you know, Southern Company has a long and good track record of restoration after hurricane. Both not only in your home service area, but helping your neighbors, certainly through the esec and others. Have you seen changes based on lessons after katrina that you are using today to improve that . Oh, sure. We have this mantra i had in my opening statement, want to be today better than yesterday, tomorrow better than today. And no matter how good we think we are we can always be better, me included. And were accountable for always improving. When you think about some of the testimony, the live and death matters that are at stake here, it isnt just about electrons, its about restoring hope to communities and peoples ways of life. We always work hard to think about what we can do better. I think the latest iteration, whether its harvey, whether its irma, the, esec has demonstrated a much better capability of working across not only investor owned utilities and coops, but also cross sector industries, telecom, finance, water, et cetera. And so those are particularly good things. The other things is this whole notion, and weve heard a lot about new technology being brought to bear, good heavens weve deployed that in terms of resiliency as a strategic objective of america, cybersecurity, protection against terrorists from a physical standpoint, but also against natural disasters. Thank you, mr. Fanning. My time is expired. I kweeld bayield back, mr. Whic remember. Call gene green. I wish i could claim except going to a couple of the games. But thank you, mr. Chairman. Mr. Thompson, you talked about how particularly refined production was back online after harvey, and id like to commend the job industry did. In Harris County we have five refineries. I met with linedale refinery and also shell. A lot of folks dont understand you just cant turn switches off and on and get them back up. Now the price of gas is going down. All those refineries are back up. I know in our area, i assume in beaumont port arthur also. I know my constituents worked around the clock to get that back up. One of my concerns was the issue with the tanks. In east Harris County we have the tanks that are we keep building them because its either Holding Crude Oil or product or whatever. And the engineering of them now is a floating roof. And some of the because of the amount of water that hit the top of that, it actually turned that top over and water went into whatever product was in there, could have been crude oil, could have been refined products. And emissions from that. But also overflowing because when you get 52 inches of rain anywhere youre going to have a problem. Has the industry looked at what were going to do . I know talking with the two companies they said were going to have to look at it, how do we plan for 52 inches of rain . To see if engineeringwise theres a way we dont repeat that problem if we have another well, its when were going to have another storm. On the texas gulf coast, im a native, weve lived through them. Well get through this too. But its not pretty. We need to learn from our mistakes if we have another 52inch rain in those plants. Has there been talk about how across from api . Like i said just talking to the two companies, they said they had to look at it and see whats going on. Thank you for the remarks. Yes, our industry, as i said in opening remarks, we fared fairly well, we proved to be resilient. We werent perfect by any stretch of the imagination. We were better prepared than we were in prior storms. We have installed a lot of floating roofs, which you know are better for the environment. It keeps in the normal states emissions much lower. But we werent prepared for 60 inches of rain at times. And so some tanks did have some failures. But the key is, that was the exception and not the rule. Yeah. For sure. And i can assure you that this is already a number one topic of conversation about how to prevent this Going Forward and there will be lots of discussion. Im sure there will be engineering to make sure these problems dont happen Going Forward to the best we can. Can you talk a little bit about the difference in how quickly the refining sector came back up online and the difficulty it took the petra chemical sector. The refining industry came back online a little bit more quickly. A lot of that was from preparation. The petra chemical said we knocked out 60 of the capacity, 80 in the gulf. About 75 of that capacity has returned to the industry. Some of our facilities, they were under lots of water and its taken a lot of time to get those facilities back up. Repairs have had to be made and that just takes that just takes time. Were well on our way. We think weve turned the corner and hopefully were back up to full capacity soon. I also know that you can tell that at the price at the pump because the prices went up 25, 30 cents a gallon. Now its back down, and maybe not in washington. But at least in Southeast Texas its gone back down to maybe a little higher than it was. But still its not 2. 49. Its 2. 19 that you can get on the side of the road now. And just certainly we are getting back closer to prehurricane levels. One thing ill point out is since that time the price of crude oil was certainly higher. Some of thats being reflected at the pump as well. Yeah. I yield back, mr. Chairman, thank you. Gentleman yields back. The chairman now calls upon the houses best bird watcher, the man from the commonwealth of west virginia. Virginia. Im sorry, virginia, im confused. Youve been in the chair a long time. Five minutes, my friend. Thank you very much. Mr. Fanning, mr. Harper touched on this a minute or two ago about making sure we have lines of communication up. The National InfrastructureAdvisory Counsel noting this absolute criticality that communications play in Grid Resilience suggested that electric utilities may need dedicated spectrum space. What do you think . Well, listen, theres a number of solutions that go to that very important problem. Even to be provocative in the circumstance of a National Emergency should you have dedicated internet access. Theres a lot of things that you need to clear the way for. Let me just give great kudos. So many people today i think lose faith in government and the institution and the people that run it and all that. I can say without equivocation that in response to these events, whether its in the white house with tom bossert, Energy Secretary perry. One of the things we can do is work with these folks and these folks can clear the way to get the work done. So often, i think the question goes to whos in charge. You know who really knows how to get stuff done are the line crews and the supervisors and the people that have the boots on the ground to get this done. When there are barriers, what weve got to do is work in this Effective Public Private Partnership to get whatever barriers exist cleared away. The government in this case has been fabulous during harvey and irma particularly. I appreciate that. And thank you for your answer. Mr. Rhymer was very clepleased to as i was listening to your testimony, hear you talk about micro grids and what youre planning on doing. I particularly liked the way you described how theyre going to interact with the full system and then stand loalone. I hope you success in that. I think thats helpful not just in the islands, but in mountains and other regions of the United States, those kinds of concepts can be very, very helpful. Thank you for that. Thank you. Mr. Nieves, did i say that close to right . Thanks. I appreciated your stark comments. It seems there have been a lot of problems with the electric utility in puerto rico for some time based on your comments. Im just wondering, you know, federal governments going to be asked to come in there and spend a lot of money. I understand that and think thats right. But if we do so, are you willing to, do you think that the government there, particularly the electric utility, is going to be willing to introduce some of these novel concepts like micro grids and working on ways to use puerto rico as a land of experiments . Where we can try Different Things. They wont all necessarily work, but things that we can do to try to make the grid better long term and try out some of these new ideas that are out there that have been talked about for years but weve never had an opportunity, and for all the tragedy that is taking place in puerto rico for which im very sorry and worry about and figure out what we can do. We may have the opportunity to do something better. Do you think that the Utility Company would be willing to embrace some of that . Well, my proposal during testimony is that if the federal government is going to step up and allocate considerable resources to not just repair the old grid, but to create a new grid, that you cannot do that alone. You have to also establish a specific mandate in the law saying were appropriating this x amount of dollars to build a new grid for puerto rico. But with this specifications. And i respectfully submit that since microgrids could work, regional microgrids for puerto rico could really work to create a strong, resilient system, that might as well be ordered by federal law under proek local law. Weve got to work on last year when i was a senator, we authorized micro grids. And the puerto rico commission is right now working on an expedited regulation to put that in place. But i really submit that x amount of dollars are appropriated have to be with specific federal mandates. I appreciate that. And would agree that were going to have to do some Different Things there. One of the things that might help is if we have utility accountable to shareholders. I dont know how you would spin that off with the assets they have. But i noticed from your comments that one of the problems was you had a while it was a semiregulated monopoly, it was a nonprofit. Its amazing when youre trying to figure out ways to make yourself more efficient, you figure out ways to make it a little bit of profit, even though its not required much profit. Its a thought to think about. I hope you would consider that as well. My time is over. I have to yield become. The gentleman from the commonwealth of virginia yields back. The chair now calls upon the gentleman from amsterdam, new york. Thank you, mr. Chair. Mr. Rhymer, your testimony mentioned the water and Power Authority had used fema hazardous mitigation ramps to bury infrastructure underground making it more resilient. When did you receive those grants . We received those grants approximately 2010, 2011 and we have underground portion of st. Thomas and st. Croix. Were currently seeking additional Hazard Mitigation grants currently, the underground st. Onand additional parts of st. Thomas and st. Croix. Is there any other fema money youre asking to secure beyond that burying of cable, anything with your microgrids . Were seeking to get mitigation grants for the micro grid stuff and Renewable Energy stuff, and hardening of the system in terms of our administration, in terms of the buildings, like the Line Department building is completely destroyed. Basically we need to have that building be resilient. Thank you. New york state and the utilities there benefitted greatly from mutual assistance from the aftermath of super storm sandy. Now it is our turn to be called upon its your turn to be called upon in making things better. Mr. Fanning, do you believe the utilitys industry mutual assistance efforts work well. Theyre outstanding. I know islands present unique channels to mobilizing workers and equipment. Can you think of specific reasons why mutual assistance would be resisted . No. Mr. Nieves, you testified that puerto ricos grid had limitations, certainly in the amount of Renewable Resources that could be integrated into its energy mix. What were the reasons for that . Yes. According to 2014 report that prepa received, the grid as it stood for maria would only integrate up to 580 megawatts of Renewable Power. Renewable power has certain technical issues that the grid that we had could not really tolerate without jeopardizing the system. So is it a matter of better interconnect devices . Theres Technology Already shelf ready, i believe, that might be able to help your situation . Thats correct. Prepas grid was not a smart grid, not a grid that could really accommodate a system whereby customers are also generating power, Renewable Power. So theyre not just passive customers of our energy model. So according to that report from prepas grid only can tolerate that amount of Renewable Power which is really unacceptable and a really small amount. And ms. Kennedy, thank you for making it so clear that Puerto Ricans are still dealing with a life and death situation. Can you further explain the Health Impacts you have seen due to a lack of safe water . Puerto rico . Sure. Like i said we were there for about two weeks. And one of the things that the nurses had to go out and do was really within the community to take a look at what kind of resources were available and time and time again it was the lack of clean running water. So, you know, one of the things that the nurses saw was that people were very desperate. They were actually, you know, drinking from river water, water that came down they would save from their roofs. As you know with hurricane, you have rodents and of course bacteria. So the prospect of lep to s imminent, and clearly if they were infected, if treated properly, it wouldnt be life threatening. But, you know, these were things we saw for the last two weeks. Right. I have also seen photos shared with me by family members in my district. And they cause grave concern. I believe, and i think ms. Kennedy would agree we need to have a serious discussion about waiving cost sharing requirements, especially for Public Health infrastructure. Its a Public Health and Public Safety situation. I would also express that puerto rico can learn a great deal from new yorks rev initiative. It was in response to the super storm sandy situation. And that state, my home state has worked to understand changes in the traditional utility business molgd and how to plan for a more centralized grid. My concern is that if we build back to this failed system that you cite, its a very troublesome investment made by any level of government and the private sector, and we need to do better than that and encourage smart, flexible and reliable grid for cleaner and Stronger Energy future. And with that, i yield back. Congratulations on the. Thank you, thank you. The chairman calls for gentleman of our neighbor to the north, oklahoma, mr. Mullin for five minutes. Chairman, you are almost in giddy form today. I wonder why. Guilty as charged. The best thing is the third baseman for the chargers can shave and cut his hair now. Right . Hey, appreciate you guys coming up here and informing members of congress. Its very important for us to have a working relationship in a situation like this. And its been a long day. And i appreciate your alls patience. But i feel like were going to continue to learn from these lessons. What we dont want to do is get in the habit of repeating them. Mr. Fanning, if you dont mind id like to start with you. The physical work of the restoration i know falls mainly on industries. But what role does the federal government play in this . They play an exceedingly important role. As i described earlier when i think about the role of the esec i describe it in three levels. The first is to harmonize the efforts of the federal government. This is truly a public, private partnership, particularly in a super regional kind of disaster where we absolutely when you talk about a private Public Partnership right. Does the partnership end when the federal dollars are put in and then the Utility Companies reap the benefits of it, or does the federal dollars, since its a partnership, get paid back . Listen, the partnership exists whether the federal whether theres a disaster or not. Sure. This is our what we call playbook. This is our regime in which we respond to cyber, physical security or natural disasters. What it describes here is frankly not only the unity of effort, the whats of a restoration effort, but also the unity of message and the hows around restoration effort. That has to be coordinated and harmonized between the federal government and not only electricity in this case, but as we said before the lifeline sectors in a cyberwarfare its going to be in the context of finance, telecom, electricity, broadly it would include transportation and water. And then theres other priorities going from that. Dont ever forget the need to harmonize also state and local government efforts, the boots on the ground that ultimately will impact our ability to deliver. So when were talking about a partnership, are we talking about just in Financial Support or are we as youre describing, all of the above from the logistics behind it to from the federal government stepping out and getting, you know, getting some of the red tape out, letting you guys go to work, waivers in place. Congressman, absolutely right. In fact, somebody else mentioned this National InfrastructureAdvisory Council made a recommendation of the president to form something called a strategic council. Thats everything or not here. Electricity, finance, telecom. We will bring ceos together and finance and telecom to put together a common set of regulatory permissions, legislative initiatives, harmonizing technology systems, information sharing, and physical coordination. If we can get that done that is an enormous activity. The other thing that i think we need to do is inform policimakers like you all. Thats why i applaud this effort. Theres so much noise around these kinds of disasters or potential disasters. We have to take action before they get here. If all were doing is reacting to the latest disaster, were way behind the ball. Weave got to pitch not catch. I agree with that. Look at that, once that neat . Getting a zing in there for our chairman. That was thinking on your feet. I agree with that. We would love to move to a point of being more proactive than reactive and take the Lessons Learned. I should applaud the idea of putting together that committee so to say where we can say these are our lessons, this is what we need, the roadblocks that need to be dropped, this is why it happens and lets move forward so we can react faster. Congressman, i believe it needs to be ceo led. We have to work together. Mr. Mcbrayer, ive got short time here. The epa issued several fuel waivers along the way for diesel and gasoline. That maybe didnt meet the standards, but it was able to get delivered. Was it effective . Was that helpful . I think was it effective and helpful at the time . I think one of the things we have to adjust to as it relates to getting fuel to folks who are your constituents, our consumers is that at least in the southeast we are transitioning from summer grade gasoline to winter grade gasoline on september 15th every year. Because of the nature of the two specifications, winter grade gasoline is less costly than summer grade gasoline. Whether your inventory is in your store or whether youre a place holder for inventory in a terminal, the financial incentive is to diminish the amount of supply you have going into september 15, 16 because youre going to take in many cases 10 to 15 cent devaluation of that inventory, basically a 12 01 a. M. On the 16th. One of the things i would ask from a federal perspective is to take a look at that date. Is that really the only date that we can in the southeast convert from the lower rbp to the higher gasoline. Is there a way to allow that date to move from time to time, or be it fixed, so that folks like racetrack and other members of our association are not forced by the changing costs to diminish inventories in a time where hurricanes are more likely to occur . Thank you, thats a great point. Mr. Chairman, thank you for entertaining a little bit more time there. I yield back. Seeing only astros fans, but no further members seeking to ask questions, id like to thank all of our witnesses again for being here today. I have a request and documents for the record, number 1, the prepa letter to eei at appa. Number 2 is an appa letter to the energy and commerce subcommittee. On mutual aid. Number three appa and eei letter to mr. Ricardo. Far ma to energy and commerce, energy subcommittee, number 5 is the eia supplement testimony with attachments. Number 6, ava med letter. 7 8 9 letters to senators mccows key and kent well. And Puerto Rico Energy commissioner. Without objection, so ordered. Mr. Chairman, i want to restate or reiterate my request for letting prepa be subpoenaed and we have fema for the subcommittee in the future. Ill carry that message to chairman upton and chairman walden. Pursuant to Committee Rules ill remind members they have ten Business Days to submit their additional questions for the record. The witnesses have 10 days to present their response. One final comment, point of personal privilege, you guys have it looks like 23 1 2 hours to get to houston for our big parade, for our astros. Without objection the subcommittee is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] this weekend on American History tv on cspan 3, saturday were live at 9 30 a. M. Eastern at the National World war i museum and memorial in kansas city, missouri for a symposium marking the centennial of the u. S. Entry in the war in 1917. At 8 00 p. M. On lectures in history, a look at religion and the american revolution. Washington wrote at the end of the war, 1783, to a group of german calvinists, the establishment of civil and religious liberty was the motive which induced me to the field to have battle. Why did i fight . Not merely for civil liberty, not merely so that i didnt have to pay three pence on the pound for tea or Something Like that, i fought for prainciple, and i thought for religious liberty. At 10 00 p. M. , the real america, the road to the wall. The soviet union and the berlin wall. We declare openly that our ends can only be attained by the forcible overthrow of all existing social conditions, marx writes. Thus the road begins. And sunday at 6 00 p. M. On american art facts, see the exhibit for chief Justice John Marshall at the National Constitution center in philadelphia. We have the actual nomination from john adams of marshall. This is the official nomination when he is sending to the senate John Marshalls name to be chief justice of the United States. One of the great moments in John Marshalls career and one of the great moments of our nation. American history tv all weekend every weekend only on cspan 3. This weekend cspan citys tour takes you to falls, south dakota. Highlight the history and literary life of sioux falls. Saturday at 6 00 p. M. On book tv, a look at the history and native american citizenship in the u. S. Author frank pomershine. Describes are sovereignty, the authority from their preconstitutional existence as selfgoverning solve rens. Thats the position tribes take