National Security Council is Seeking New Policies to Safeguard the Electric Grid that do not Subsidize Coal or Nuclear Power

The National Security Council (NSC) is at the helm of a search for new policies to protect the electric grid that does not include any efforts to subsidize coal or nuclear power. The search panel is being led by Mira Ricardel, a deputy to White House National Security Adviser John Bolton.  The NSC is chaired by the President, and is the administration’s principal forum for considering national security and foreign policy matters amongst senior national security advisers and Cabinet officials. The Department of Energy holds a permanent seat on the NSC.

NSC officials report that the current discussions are broaching the topic from a resilience and defense perspective. This includes looking at the state of critical infrastructure overall, as well as established policies such as the Defense Production Act of 1950, the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act of 2015 and the Energy Policy Act.

Cybersecurity is rapidly becoming a key priority for federal agencies as processes move towards a more digital format. While coal and nuclear energy have been bandied about as potential support mechanisms for the grid, many grid experts caution against focusing on these sources of energy and favor other more effective and affordable energy sources.

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