Senate Joint Resolution
No. 20
CHAPTER 130
Relative to electricity.
[
Filed with
Secretary of State
August 09, 2018.
]
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SJR 20, Hertzberg.
Electrical grid.
This measure would urge Congress and the President of the United States to work together to implement grid hardening measures and to help ensure our nation’s critical electrical infrastructure is protected from threats from electromagnetic pulses and physical attacks on the infrastructure.
Digest Key
Fiscal Committee:
NO WHEREAS, Geomagnetic storms are natural phenomena involving disturbances in the earth’s geomagnetic field caused by solar activity; and
WHEREAS, Disruptions of electrical power caused by geomagnetic storms, such as the collapse of the Hydro-Quebec grid during the geomagnetic storm of 1989, have occurred many times in the past; and
WHEREAS, The congressionally mandated Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack found, in its report delivered in July of 2004, that an enemy using a low-yield nuclear weapon detonated at a high altitude above the United States could carry out an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the United States, and that an EMP attack has the potential to place our society at risk and to defeat the Armed Forces of the United States; and
WHEREAS, Congress has commissioned numerous other hearings and reports on this issue, including the House of Representatives National Security Committee hearing on the EMP threat in 1997, the House of Representatives Military Research and Development Subcommittee hearing on the threat to the United States of potential EMP attacks in 1999, the creation of the Commission to Assess the Threat to the United States from Electromagnetic Pulse Attack in 2001, the congressional commission report, “Critical National Infrastructures,” issued in 2008, the United States Navy Naval Sea Systems Command EMP program in 2010, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation/federal Department of Energy report, “High-Impact, Low-Frequency Event Risk to the North American Bulk Power System,” issued in 2010, and the federal Department of Homeland Security testimony to the House of Representatives Committee
on Homeland Security, “The Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) Threat: Examining the Consequences,” in 2012; and
WHEREAS, In April 2013, an electrical substation in San Jose, California, was attacked with gunfire, leaving transformers disabled for nearly four weeks in an apparent attempt to disrupt power to Silicon Valley, raising questions about the vulnerability of power grids across the United States; now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the Senate and the Assembly of the State of California, jointly, That the Legislature urges the President and the Congress of the United States to work together to implement grid hardening measures and to help ensure our nation’s critical electrical infrastructure is protected from threats from electromagnetic pulses and physical attacks on the infrastructure; and be it further
Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the President and the Vice President of the United States, to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, to the Majority Leader of the Senate, and to each Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the United States.