3 Bills Focus on Enhancing Electrical Grid Cybersecurity
Compliance
Compliance Twitter
Photo: Pixabay
Lawmakers in the Senate and House have introduced legislation designed to improve and enhance the nation s electrical grid and respond to concerns that the country s power system is prone to cyberthreats.
On Tuesday, Reps. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, and Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., introduced a pair of bills - the Cyber Sense Act and the Enhancing Grid Security Through Public-Private Partnerships Act. The bills would direct the U.S. Department of Energy to work with private electrical and power utilities to improve cybersecurity across the nation s grid.
Meanwhile, Sen. Angus King, I-Maine, is leading a bipartisan group in the Senate reintroducing the Protecting Resources on the Electric Grid with Cybersecurity Technology Act, which would provide incentives to electric utilities to make cybersecurity investments.
Published: Thursday, May 6, 2021
Following pressure from pipeline companies and landowner groups, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has modified an order that prevents energy companies from doing construction work for pipelines and natural gas export projects until objections have been resolved.
Cookies must be enabled in order to access E&E News.
Please adjust your browser settings to allow cookies from www.eenews.net and refresh this page.
Need Assistance? Call: 202-628-6500 or email us at pubs@eenews.net 3:28
Natural gas suppliers, pipeline companies and banks that trade commodities have emerged as the biggest market winners from February s U.S. winter blast that roiled gas and power markets, according to more than two dozen interviews and quarterly earnings reports. The deep freeze caught Texas s utilities off-guard, killed more than 100 people and left 4.5 million without power. Demand for heat pushed wholesale power costs to 400 times the usual amount and propelled natural gas prices to record highs, forcing utilities and consumers to pay exorbitant bills. After the storm, few companies wanted to talk about their financial gains, unwilling to be seen as profiting off others hardships. But a clearer picture is emerging from quarterly earnings and as utility companies smarting from big bills sue to recoup their losses.
The Division of Water Resources has again denied a water-quality permit to the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline Southgate that would carry natural gas from Virginia to Graham after an appeals court ordered more consideration.
“In the absence of the MVP Mainline pipeline’s completion in Virginia, the MVP Southgate project has no independent utility,” according to a recent letter from The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality Division of Water Resources. “In essence, it would be a pipeline from nowhere to nowhere incapable of carrying any natural gas, and certainly not able to fulfill its basic project purpose, while having no practical alternative.”