Transforming the Nation’s Electricity System:
https://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2017/01/f34/Transforming%20the%20Nation%E2%80%99s%20Electricity%20System--Summary%20for%20Policymakers.pdfThe Second Installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review
January 2017
Summary for Policymakers
The second installment of the Quadrennial Energy Review (QER 1.2) focuses on the electricity system and
its role as the enabler for accomplishing three key national goals: improving the economy, protecting the
environment, and increasing national security. As a critical and essential national asset, it is a strategic
imperative to protect and enhance the value of the electricity system through modernization and
transformation. Reliable and affordable electricity provides essential energy services for consumers,
business, and national defense....
Key Crosscutting Recommendations to Support the Security and Reliability of the Electricity System
Amend Federal Power Act authorities to reflect the national security importance of the Nation’s
electric grid. Grid security is a national security concern—the clear and exclusive purview of the
Federal Government. The Federal Power Act, as amended by the FAST Act, should be further
amended by Congress to clarify and affirm the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) authority to
develop preparation and response capabilities that will ensure it is able to issue a grid-security
emergency order to protect critical electric infrastructure from cyber attacks, physical incidents,
EMPs, or geomagnetic storms. In this regard, Federal authorities should include the ability to
address two-way flows that create vulnerabilities across the entire system. DOE should be
supported in its development of exercises and its facilitation of the penetration testing necessary
to fulfill FAST Act emergency authorities. In the area of cybersecurity, Congress should provide
FERC with authority to modify NERC-proposed reliability standards—or to promulgate new
standards directly—if it finds that expeditious action is needed to protect national security in the
face of fast-developing new threats to the grid. This narrow expansion of FERC’s authority would
complement DOE’s national security authorities related to grid-security emergencies affecting
critical electric infrastructure and defense-critical electricity infrastructure. This approach would
maintain the productive NERC-FERC structure for developing and enforcing reliability standards,
but would ensure that the Federal Government could act directly if necessary to address national
security issues....
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Reading through the actual recommendations from the Federal publication, it appears to be another false claim from WND