Review - HR 9083 Introduced – Energy Security Plans

Last month, Rep Latta (R,OH) introduced HR 9083, the Securing Community Upgrades for a Resilient (SECURE) Grid Act. The bill would amend 42 USC 6326 to require States to include local distribution systems in their State Energy Security Plans described in §6326. No new funding is authorized by this legislation.

Moving Forward

Both Latta and his sole cosponsor {Rep Matsui (D,CA)}, are members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there could be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. While I see nothing in this bill that would engender any organized opposition, I do suspect that there would be some interest in seeing some changes to the wording of the new §6326(c)(3) language, in particular subparagraph (B); “(B) risks and liabilities posed by human error or mismanagement;”. At the end of the day, I suspect that there will be some level of bipartisan support for this bill in Committee. Whether that support would be sufficient to see the bill considered in the Full House under the suspension of the rules remains to be seen.

Commentary

While the addition of the “attacks on the physical security of local distribution systems” language is certainly important given the increasing numbers of such attack in the last couple of years, it comes at the cost of removing the existence reference to the “physical threats and vulnerabilities” for the bulk power system within the State. I would like to see that language added back in by inserting a new §6326(c)(3)(E):

“(E) physical threats and vulnerabilities;”

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9083-introduced- subscription required.