Metcalf Attack: One Year Later, Electric Grid Still Unprotected

One Year After Metcalf Attack:

Nearly Devastating Attack on a Key Substation Shows Necessity of Fixing the Power Grid
Legislators, Experts to Discuss What Must and Can Be Done

Published on Apr 17, 2014 by The Center for Security Policy.

(Description from The Center for Security Policy’s YouTube channel.)

Washington, DC — In the dark of night early on April 16, 2013, unidentified assailants attacked the Metcalf Substation outside San Jose, California. They very nearly destroyed seventeen, and perhaps all twenty-one, of the facility’s absolutely vital and effectively irreplaceable high-voltage transformers.

Had that happened, the power to Silicon Valley and parts of the San Francisco Bay area could have been disrupted, possibly for a protracted period. And, since the perpetrators got away, it must be assumed that they are in a position to try again with perhaps catastrophic effect against a still-vulnerable electric grid.

Preventing such a disruption — whether from man-induced causes or naturally occurring solar storms — must be a national priority. The reasons why such action is absolutely necessary and how it can be accomplished will be the subject of a panel discussion sponsored by the EMP Coalition on the first anniversary of the Metcalf attack.

WHO:
Hon. Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House of Representatives (by video)
Hon. Pete Sessions (R-TX), Chairman, House Rules Committee
Hon. Trent Franks (R-AZ), Co-Chairman, House EMP Caucus (by video)
Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, former Staff Member, Congressional EMP Threat Commission
Michael Del Rosso, former Chairman, IEEE Critical Infrastructure Committee
MG Robert Newman, former Adjutant General of Virginia

WHERE:
Reserve Officers Association
1 Constitution Avenue, NE
Washington, D.C.

WHEN:
Wednesday, April 16, 2014
3 — 4:30 p.m. EDT