The purpose of this page is to provide documentation and proof that the U.S. electric power grid is vulnerable to a long-term blackout of possibly weeks or months. That way, people will take preparation seriously. This page is divided into five sections: fairly good overview articles, official reports, videos, other short materials, and books. We recommend that you view only as much as you need, so as to be convinced of the problems. Otherwise you may become too overwhelmed to take action. If you’d like even more technical information, visit SecureTheGrid.Com.
Fairly Good Articles
Trump Moves To Protect America From Electromagnetic Pulse Attack (4/5/2019)
US power grid more vulnerabile than ever to attacks (3/29/2018)
U.S. power grid vulnerable, experts warn (4/19/2014)
Emp Attacks — What the U.S. Must Do Now (11/17/2010)
Nation’s aging electrical grid needs billions of dollars in investment, report says (4/26/12)
Official Reports and Directives
2008 Congressional EMP Commission [Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack.]
2004 Congressiona EMP Commission [Report of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Attack — Executive Summary.]
Large Power Transformers and the U.S. Electric Grid [U.S. Department of Energy, June 2012.]
Cybersecurity and the North American Electric Grid: New Policy Approaches to Address an Evolving Threat February 2014 [Bipartisan Policy Center.]
Terrorism and the Electric Power Delivery System [2012] This report can be downloaded for free HERE. [It takes three quick steps to download, but you don’t have to give any personal information.] National Research Council.
“IN THE DARK.” Military Planning for a Catastrophic Critical Infrastructure Event [May 2011.]
Physical Grid Vulnerabilities [February 2013] NRC workshop on Grid Resiliency. 19 pages.
High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to the North American Bulk Power System [2010] Department of Energy and NERC. 120 page.
Risk Mitigation in the Electric Power Sector: Serious Attention Needed [2012] Armed Forces Communication and Electronics Association Cyber Committee, 15 pages.
Physical Security of the U.S. Power Grid: High-Voltage Transformer Substations (2014) (PDF) Congressional Research Service
Presidential Policy Directive 8: National Preparedness [March 2011] President Obama signed a directive to bolster the national preparedness system.
Videos
Rep. Trent Franks talks about the EMP threat (10:50) From 2011, this Congressman from Arizona gives a sobering presentation about the threat. Highly recommended!
EIS Council Summit In this brief 4-minute video from 2013, thirteen authorities speak about the urgency of the problems. They touch on EMP and solar flares, and they summarize the multiple impacts.
EMP explained in 60 seconds. There are some inaccuracies, but the video is mostly on target. For instance, only a Super-EMP weapon would fry almost all unprotected electronics. But a conventional nuclear weapon at high altitude would bring down the grid long-term. The final statement that we would end up in the stone age is wildly exaggerated — but unfortunately things would be very bad.
Other materials
Near Miss: The Solar Superstorm of 2012 (7/23/14) Some have calculated the odds of a huge solar storm hitting Earth in the next decade to be 12%. These are very troubling odds. If that was the odds of your house burning down, you’d get insurance and be prepared. I doubt the odds are quite that high, but I feel they are in the “insure yourself with preparation” range.
Disputes Dog Efforts to Protect Transmission Grid From ‘High-Impact, Low-Probability’ Threats (8/26/2011)
Maine Leads the Nation in Dealing with EMP! (6/14/2013)
What Was Done in Maine about the Threat of EMP and What Wasn’t Done (2/19/2014)
A new organization for cybersecurity across the electric grid (4/13/2014)
Books
Apocalypse Unknown: The Struggle to Protect America from an Electromagnetic Pulse Catastrophe, by Dr. Peter Vincent Pry, 2013
A Nation Forsaken, by F. Michael Maloof, 2013.
Note: Those following the Steps who are convinced that this is an urgent problem, can go to the next step: Coping emotionally and maintaining momentum.