WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, made the following statement today as part of an Energy and Air Quality Subcommittee hearing entitled, “Protecting the Electric Grid from Cyber-Security Threats:”

“Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just returned from the 9/11 ceremony out at the Pentagon. There couldn’t be a better day to hold this hearing on cybersecurity than today as we memorialize those brave men and women who gave their lives on September 11 both at the Pentagon, at the World Trade Center and the fields of Pennsylvania. We have real threat against the United States of America. It’s not going away and we need to defend ourselves against it, both militarily and as this hearing is going to show, electronically by protecting the power grid that provides electricity for our nation.

“I think we have a lot to learn in this area. The whole idea of a cyber attack is something that’s frankly somewhat foreign to us. We have some understanding of the physical attacks we’ve seen against our nation time after time but this is a new type of attack.

“What are our vulnerabilities? Is our grid adequately protected? Will a one-time cyber reliability rule solve the problem or will we have to constantly change and upgrade to keep up with the changing threats?

“What are the consequences of a cyber attack, if successful? Is it a matter of losing power in a certain region for a few hours, a matter to destroying critical equipment, or is it a matter of losing power all over our great nation for long periods of time? We simply don’t know.

“Should the government write cybersecurity standards, in this case the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, because under current law under the North American Electric Reliability Corporation is too slow? If so, where should we draw the line? Do we address the bulk power system? What about military installations? What about local distribution systems? What about rural electric co-ops within single-state boundaries? How do we do those? 

“What about Canada and Mexico? What are their views about us giving FERC authority for the first time to, in effect, coordinate and regulate with these nations that aren’t in our own boundaries? Can we enforce such regulations if we agree that they are in the interest of these three nations?

“What are the views of the Defense Department and the National Security Council? What do they think about giving FERC the authority we’re thinking about giving them?

“Whatever we do in this subcommittee and next week in the full committee, this is certainly an issue that needs to be addressed. I want to commend you, Mr. Chairman, for addressing it. I want to welcome our witnesses today.”