The Secure The Grid Minute

President Trump’s National Security Strategy – A GREAT Step in the Right Direction!

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute. 

Just days before Christmas President Trump announced his new National Security Strategy.  This strategy is a significant and positive departure from those published by his predecessors.  Important elements of this strategy give hope to those of us who care deeply about protecting America’s most critical infrastructure – the Electric Grid. 

First, the strategy admits vulnerability to this infrastructure by cyber, physical, and electromagnetic attack.  Admitting that you have a problem is the first step to fixing it.   

Second, the strategy calls for defending our infrastructure against these types of attacks and, specifically, for strengthening our nation’s missile defense – a call to action that is long overdue.

Finally, the strategy calls for America to “build a culture of preparedness.” Look no further than Puerto Rico to prove that resilience and preparedness is an absolutely must for all Americans today. 

Learn more at www.securethegrid.com.   

Atlanta Travelers Weren’t Ready. Will YOU BE When the Grid Goes Down?

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute. 

Yesterday the busiest airport in the world suffered an electrical blackout lasting about 10 hours.  Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed’s announcement that “authorities immediately started distributing water” to travelers after the power went down, illustrates just how unprepared most Americans are to go anywhere or do anything without the support of a constant flow of electricity.  How ready are YOU to live without power?  

Our nation’s enemies – such as North Korea and Iran – know very well just how devastating it would be for America to lose its grid, which is why they are planning and rehearsing ways to attack it – the most catastrophic being through a nuclear Electromagnetic Pulse – or EMP – attack which would devastate the grid and all infrastructure upon which it depends.  Have our elected officials taken the EMP threat seriously?  Absolutely not.  Will you? 

Learn more at www.securethegrid.com.   

FERC Stonewalls Energy Secretary Perry on Grid Resilience Directive

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute. 

Stonewalling is “The act of refusing communication, stalling, or evading, especially to avoid revealing embarrassing information and escape accountability.”  This is an apt description of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in their treatment of a recent initiative of Energy Secretary Rick Perry to financially incentivize electric generators to build resilience in their operations, in this case rewarding coal and nuclear plants for keeping 90 days of fuel on site.  

Secured on-site fuel storage is just one way to provide for grid resilience and ensure power production after a catastrophe, yet in the midst of the serious EMP threat to our grid from North Korea, FERC’s Commissioners – it seems – want to delay and discredit Secretary Perry’s directive.  Stonewalling = business as usual for the regulators of our electric grid.

Stay tuned for more updates at www.securethegrid.com.   

North Korea’s Next Test Just Might Take Out the Internet & Cause a Global Recession!

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute. 

Yesterday the North Korean’s proved that they can strike anywhere on earth with an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, which – if nuclear armed and detonated at an altitude of 30Km or higher – would produce an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) that would devastate most modern technology within line of sight. 

The Hermit Kingdom may soon conduct an EMP test over the Pacific Ocean which could catastrophically damage submarine communication cables that transmit 90% of international data for the world’s internet and precipitate a global economic recession. Detonated over any populated area – including the U.S. – it would take out the electric grid, causing catastrophic losses of life over time. 

The Foundation for Resilient Societies has done a detailed analysis of the consequences of a North Korean atmospheric nuclear test.  This timely report will be made public tomorrow, 30 November.

Stay tuned at www.securethegrid.com   

Authorizing Defense Spending With ONE BIG ASSUMPTION

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute.   

Thankfully, many Americans are grateful for the service of military and law enforcement but very rarely ever think about the incredible work that is done around the world to provide for their defense.  Another aspect of daily life that most Americans take for granted is electricity, how we depend upon it for every aspect of our civilization, and how without it – not even our military or law enforcement could do their jobs.  

American citizens count on those of us in the business of National Security to be concerned with these challenges, most especially those in the Armed Services Committees of Congress, whom they elected.  Read this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, or just the summary, and you’ll note that it was written with one BIG ASSUMPTION – that electric power will be available. 

Our enemies know this critical vulnerability and are working hard to exploit it.  Let’s pray that the Executive Branch recognizes the shortcomings of this NDAA and appoints a Task Force to rapidly secure our nation’s most critical infrastructure – its electric grid.  Learn more at www.securethegrid.com.

We’re Halfway through “Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month”

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute. 

President Trump declared November to be Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience Month – a great step in raising awareness about an issue that can be as “life and death important” as many other topics for which calendar months are dedicated. 

Indeed, we ought to greatly applaud the unsung heroes in our society that keep that infrastructure running.  From electricians and linemen working in the weather to repair and maintain transmission and distribution lines to cyber defense professionals spending hours doing thankless tedious work behind the computer screen, to the men and women who treat and transport our sewage and provide for us fresh drinkable water – they all deserve our utmost appreciation this month. 

The Secure The Grid Coalition encourages you to take some time during the last half of this month to learn more about the nation’s 16 different critical infrastructures, and what threatens them, by visiting us at www.securethegrid.com.

Studying Something To Death: What if your doctor never treated your illness?

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute.    

Let’s for a minute imagine that our nation’s most critical infrastructure – the electric grid – were our own human body being attacked by a disease that could spell death in short order.  Would we want our health care provider to schedule check-up after check-up to study the sickness when they possessed a team of physicians with the ability to treat it?  What if the provider decided to fire that very team with the expertise needed to keep us alive?  

Well, that’s exactly what the U.S. Government has done when it comes to the deadly threat to our nation’s electric grid from Electromagnetic Pulse.  Congress’s current National Defense Authorization Act scuttles the free world’s best experts on EMP, replaces them with parties unknown, and calls for yet another study due on April 1st, 2019.

While our government “studies this topic to death” you can get smart on EMP and other threats to the grid at www.securethegrid.com.

First to Fight for 242 Years, Can Marines Fight Without Power?

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute.   

As a Marine, today is a special day.  242 years ago, our Corps was born in a small tavern in Philadelphia Pennsylvania.  Since that time Marines have led the way in wars to defend Americans and our interests around the world. 

For Marines, “First to Fight” is not just a slogan.  It’s a way of life that I embraced in Iraq and Afghanistan and still do, to this day, here at home. 

Today, though, our Marines – and 99% of all U.S. Military bases – are completely dependent upon our nation’s civilian electric grid.   If that grid were to suffer a prolonged blackout – which is a very real prospect – these hardened warfighters would be in the same boat as the rest of our society:  without running water, with backed up sewer, and eventually without food or medical care.  Should we make sure military bases have secure and protected sources of electricity? Sure.  Should we make sure our entire nation has a secure grid?  ABSOLUTELY.

Learn more at www.securethegrid.com.

Puerto Ricans Are Leaving In Droves Without Electricity. Where Will YOU Go When The Lights Go Out?

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute.   

With more than 60% of the island’s residents still without electricity 6 weeks after Hurricane Maria, more than 100,000 Puerto Rican residents have now permanently moved off of the island.  That’s right, about 1,800 residents per day have left in hope of finding what they lost when their island lost power.  This reality should highlight for American policymakers – and the public – just how important our electricity is to our civilization. 

If the power went off in your neighborhood for six weeks, where would you go?  If the rest of your region or nation were also in the dark, do you have what you need in your home to sustain human life and defend it from everything from disease to crime? 

These are very real possibilities for our nation and they ought to be considered by our policymakers.   If you agree, go to www.securethegrid.com and visit the embedded social media sites, making sure you like and follow them so that you, too, can help sound the alarm. 

The MOST IMPORTANT Terrain To Defend Against North Korean Aggression is NOT in Asia!

This is Tommy Waller with the Secure The Grid Minute.   

As President Trump conducts his lengthy and vitally important visit to Asia, he will undoubtedly be briefed by U.S. Military leaders on the threat from North Korea to our Asian allies.  Hopefully these briefings include a detailed look at the physical and human terrain in that area of operations. 

We would like to remind the President, though, that the most important terrain we must consider when defending against North Korea is in the exo-atmosphere – at an altitude of 30KM or higher – above our own United States. 

It is in THAT battle space that the backwards hermit kingdom, North Korea, can defeat the most advanced and sophisticated civilization on earth, and with just one nuclear weapon.  Detonating an atomic bomb in the exo-atmosphere produces Electromagnetic Pulse, or EMP, which can wipe out our modern technology, and most importantly, our electric grid – upon which we depend for every facet of our lives. 

Learn more atwww.securethegrid.com.