Overview

The production facilities, transportation networks, and distribution infrastructure that comprise the nation's energy sector represent both a key economic asset and a significant national vulnerability. The U.S. economy and the lifestyles of all Americans depend heavily on the availability of a strong, resilient and responsive energy infrastructure. But the blackout that struck much of the northeastern United States and parts of Canada in August 2003 vividly illustrated the sector's vulnerability and the cascading effects a failure of the nation's energy infrastructure can have: an investigation into the cause of the blackout estimated the economic cost to the United States alone at between $4 billion and $10 billion.

The nation's diffuse energy infrastructure—with many pipelines and transmission lines running through sparsely populated areas and electricity substations sited in remote areas—makes the industry susceptible to sabotage by international terrorists, loosely organized home-grown movements, lone-wolf extremists, and common thieves and vandals. Documents discovered in Afghanistan and elsewhere since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks indicate that al Qaeda has targeted energy infrastructure, particularly nuclear power plants and oil and gas infrastructure in the United States and Saudi Arabia, as part of a campaign to disrupt the U.S. economy and inflict mass casualties. Attacks on pipelines and efforts to bring down towers supporting transmission lines continue to occur. But as recent history has shown, the more common culprits in energy-related emergencies are technical failures and natural disasters.

As the heads of state, governors ultimately are responsible for the preparing for and responding to energy emergencies within their borders. However, governors' ability to ensure the security and resilience of the energy sector, which is largely privately owned, is limited by a lack of regulatory and statutory authority. Nonetheless, there are a number of steps governors can take to ensure their states are well-positioned to respond to electrical blackouts, oil and gas shortages, and other energy-related crises.

Focus of Center Activities

Situational Awareness

Energy Assurance Daily

Emergency Situation Reports

• Raising awareness among governors and their policy advisors of energy assurance issues and the interdependencies of the energy sector with other sectors of the nation's economy; and
• Increasing coordination and cooperation among state homeland security officials, particularly those involved in critical infrastructure protection; state energy officials; and the private sector energy industry.

The Center provides outreach to governors on energy infrastructure protection and resilience through newsletter articles, issue backgrounders, and other briefing material. It works with the Governors Homeland Security Advisors Council to ensure energy assurance is part of the critical infrastructure protection discussion, and identifies Council members to represent the homeland security perspective in discussions of energy assurance.

Key Issues:

• The "Smart Grid"
• Regional Electricity Transmission Planning

Resources:

• NCSL: Energy Security and Reliability
• National Association of State Energy Officials
• Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
• North American Electric Reliability Corporation
• Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
• 2008 Sector CIKR Protection Annual Report for the Energy Sector