The nation and the world face a potentially catastrophic threat from a future EMP: a massive, unpredictable pulse of electromagnetic energy. While we have surge protectors for minor surges, the great worry concerns a major surge that would "fry" sensitive electronic equipment, shutting down our computer driven world. A future certainty in a natural world, a massive EMP could leave us without electrical energy for weeks or years. This is unfathomable, but possible.
While EMPs are natural events, they can also be manmade, either as a deliberately directed force or as a high altitude nuclear EMP to disable political enemies. Added to the threats of chemical weapons, long range attacks, invasions, terrorism, and political subversion that require our defensive energies, the threat of an EMP strike by an aggressor demands attention.
What would happen if one of these inevitable massive solar flares occurred? Our modern world would stall and stop. Computer driven cars would coast to a halt, left to decorate abandoned freeways until power was restored. Computer driven gas pumps would no longer dispense fuel. Food production, heavily oil dependent, would grind to a halt, as oil supplies are computer driven. Grocery shelves would be bare, due to computer driven delivery systems. Medical activities, from records access to lifesaving equipment to pharmaceutical manufactures, would cease. Bank computers would no longer dispense money and national commerce would fail. Most companies would shut their doors; fast food restaurants would have nothing to offer. Electronically driven emergency services, badly needed in a crisis, would be sidelined. Homes would be dark, either freezing or sweltering, with bare cupboards and no sewer or running water—all driven electronically.
In short, civilization would crash. The thoughts are frightening. We are, to an extent, victims of our technological sophistication and scientific advancement. Left long term without power, the American people would face starvation and the unprotected force of the elements. If an artificially engineered EMP attack was directed just at the United States, we could find ourselves with massive needs for foreign assistance which could have dire political effects on our national sovereignty.
The technology exists to protect ourselves from EMP events. Republicans in the U.S. House, led by Trent Franks, R-AZ., are proposing legislation, called the SHIELD Act, to protect the vulnerable U.S. electrical grid from an attack. This legislation would harden the grid, ensuring that it can be brought back after an EMP, thus protecting vital hardware for critical infrastructure. The act gives the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority to develop standards on this matter but would not preclude industry from developing its own.
It is essential that the entire grid be hardened. If it is not uniformly resilient, cascading effects from unprotected entities would initiate rolling blackouts and massive outages. The federal government has refused to make potential EMPs a priority. States need to take up the banner and act. Maine has passed legislation ordering the hardening of its grid, the first state in the Union to do so.
Knowledgeable sources believe an EMP event is the greatest national security threat facing the United States today. While military systems have been hardened, they depend on the national power grid, which is not hardened. This would make it difficult to respond in the event of an attack.
As an aside, this potential for an EMP event spotlights the flexibility of our Constitution. While the Constitution does not provide for events such as an EMP, unknown in 1787, it assigns responsibility to protect national interests. Article 1:8:18 empowers Congress to pass laws necessary to carry out the duties of the federal government. Because an EMP would affect every responsibility assigned to Congress, the Constitution provides for congressional involvement, answering critics who declare that our Constitution is outdated for a modern world.
- Pam
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