U.S. President Executive Order on Securing the United States Bulk-Power System

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Presented without my usual comments.  I bolded certain parts to assist in navigating through the legalese wording.

Executive Order on Securing the United States Bulk-Power System

INFRASTRUCTURE & TECHNOLOGY

Issued on: May 1, 2020

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) (NEA), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code,

I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, find that foreign adversaries are increasingly creating and exploiting vulnerabilities in the United States bulk-power system, which provides the electricity that supports our national defense, vital emergency services, critical infrastructure, economy, and way of life.  The bulk-power system is a target of those seeking to commit malicious acts against the United States and its people, including malicious cyber activities, because a successful attack on our bulk-power system would present significant risks to our economy, human health and safety, and would render the United States less capable of acting in defense of itself and its allies.

I further find that the unrestricted acquisition or use in the United States of bulk-power system electric equipment designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of foreign adversaries augments the ability of foreign adversaries to create and exploit vulnerabilities in bulk-power system electric equipment, with potentially catastrophic effects.

I therefore determine that the unrestricted foreign supply of bulk-power system electric equipment constitutes an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, which has its source in whole or in substantial part outside the United States.  This threat exists both in the case of individual acquisitions and when acquisitions are considered as a class.  Although maintaining an open investment climate in bulk-power system electric equipment, and in the United States economy more generally, is important for the overall growth and prosperity of the United States, such openness must be balanced with the need to protect our Nation against a critical national security threat.  To address this threat, additional steps are required to protect the security, integrity, and reliability of bulk-power system electric equipment used in the United States.  In light of these findings, I hereby declare a national emergency with respect to the threat to the United States bulk-power system.

Accordingly, I hereby order:

Section 1.  Prohibitions and Implementation.  (a)  The following actions are prohibited:  any acquisition, importation, transfer, or installation of any bulk-power system electric equipment (transaction) by any person, or with respect to any property, subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, where the transaction involves any property in which any foreign country or a national thereof has any interest (including through an interest in a contract for the provision of the equipment), where the transaction was initiated after the date of this order, and where the Secretary of Energy (Secretary), in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget and in consultation with the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of National Intelligence, and, as appropriate, the heads of other executive departments and agencies (agencies), has determined that:

(i)   the transaction involves bulk-power system electric equipment designed, developed, manufactured, or supplied, by persons owned by, controlled by, or subject to the jurisdiction or direction of a foreign adversary; and

(ii)  the transaction:

(A)  poses an undue risk of sabotage to or subversion of the design, integrity, manufacturing, production, distribution, installation, operation, or maintenance of the bulk-power system in the United States;

(B)  poses an undue risk of catastrophic effects on the security or resiliency of United States critical infrastructure or the economy of the United States; or

(C)  otherwise poses an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States or the security and safety of United States persons.

(b)  The Secretary, in consultation with the heads of other agencies as appropriate, may at the Secretary’s discretion design or negotiate measures to mitigate concerns identified under section 1(a) of this order.  Such measures may serve as a precondition to the approval by the Secretary of a transaction or of a class of transactions that would otherwise be prohibited pursuant to this order.

(c)  The prohibitions in subsection (a) of this section apply except to the extent provided by statutes, or in regulations, orders, directives, or licenses that may be issued pursuant to this order, and notwithstanding any contract entered into or any license or permit granted prior to the date of this order.

(d)  The Secretary, in consultation with the heads of other agencies as appropriate, may establish and publish criteria for recognizing particular equipment and particular vendors in the bulk-power system electric equipment market as pre-qualified for future transactions; and may apply these criteria to establish and publish a list of pre-qualified equipment and vendors.  Nothing in this provision limits the Secretary’s authority under this section to prohibit or otherwise regulate any transaction involving pre-qualified equipment or vendors.

...

 

[Dan Warnick + 6,100]

For those that question those of us on this forum that support Donald Trump and tell us he is a liar:  The difference is that we know when he is manipulating or toying with the Left, and when he does things like the above.  We support what he does; we enjoy it when he triggers those that blatantly lie when acting as if they are telling the truth.  In other words his actions speak louder than his words, to us.

People also complain about his tweets.  I say that I very much enjoy hearing directly from the President without the filters of the various parts of the Federal Government (and I will refrain from attaching vulgar names to those departments).  I also don't mind hearing from the President's advisors and staff, but I do mind when everything coming out of the White House has been pre-scrubbed in order to be politically correct.  Raw is fine for me.

[John Foote + 1,135]

As a libertarian leaning sort, I find our system's acceptance of national emergencies on a regular basis appauling.

That said, we have been nationally foolhardy with our infrastructure and grid. And as the grid continues to evolve and become "smarter" the exposures become so much greater. Watching out for a grid is way overdue.

Personally not so worried about the grand machines, transformers, etc, but rather the embedded Chinese components in them. In the industrial tool business this is complicated, and a lot of the embedded foreign content is to enable foreign sales, and it's often done not to save money, but to drive sales. There are things I won't even source from Mexico or Canada, and other things, I just don't care. If there is no IP in it concerns are business continuity and costs, maybe a bit of cycle time response. I wonder if GE and Siemens had a hand in this. I hope this is pure play because it is needed.

Edited May 3, 2020 by John Foote
grammer

[El Nikko + 2,145]

12 hours ago, Dan Warnick said:

For those that question those of us on this forum that support Donald Trump and tell us he is a liar:  The difference is that we know when he is manipulating or toying with the Left, and when he does things like the above.  We support what he does; we enjoy it when he triggers those that blatantly lie when acting as if they are telling the truth.  In other words his actions speak louder than his words, to us.

People also complain about his tweets.  I say that I very much enjoy hearing directly from the President without the filters of the various parts of the Federal Government (and I will refrain from attaching vulgar names to those departments).  I also don't mind hearing from the President's advisors and staff, but I do mind when everything coming out of the White House has been pre-scrubbed in order to be politically correct.  Raw is fine for me.

and his tweets are hilarious 😂

 

[Tom Kirkman + 8,860]

Update:

US Moves to Pull Chinese Equipment From Its Power Grid

An executive order issued last week proposes to “monitor and replace” any U.S. power grid equipment made by the nation’s foreign adversaries.

Analysts said it would mainly affect Chinese-made products like electrical transformers.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on May 1 prohibiting bulk power system equipment from foreign companies in the U.S. grid, citing security concerns.

The U.S. Department of Energy noted that under the current rules, contracts are awarded to the lowest bidder when it comes to bulk power system procurement, and that creates a "vulnerability that can be exploited by those with malicious intent."

U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said that it is imperative that “the bulk-power system be secured against exploitation and attacks by foreign threats.”

Analysts believe this means that the United States will set up a whitelist for the procurement of such equipment. Although the order did not name any specific country, observers say China and Russia are the two main countries most capable of posing a threat to the U.S. power grid.

“It's an important set of issues and similar to the debate that's occurring around (companies like) Huawei, ZTE in 5G. Clearly you want to have visibility and confidence across your entire supply chain,” Frank J. Cilluffo, director of Auburn University’s McCrary Institute for Cyber and Critical Infrastructure Security, told VOA.

He added that the move is a “prudent step” aimed at securing “the most critical of critical infrastructure,” because virtually all other infrastructure rely on the power grid to function.

“Just because the dependence is so great. When you look at the implications of COVID-19 and everyone working from home, people are becoming more and more aware of some of those vulnerabilities,” he said. “I think you're going to see closer scrutiny across all of our critical infrastructures.”

The term “bulk-power system” refers to facilities and control systems necessary for national power grids.  ...

 

[Enthalpic + 1,496]

Wow I almost agree with something trump is doing.

Of course this is more about the computers than energy per se and the utilities infrastructure is horribly unprotected.

I know a few electrical engineers and people who work for ISPs.   Some of the stuff I've heard is a joke, if it were funny not scary.

 

Just turning off the power to critical systems would be an excellent attack.

However, you can do even worse to some machines with malicious code - of course the US is already doing this to others...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stuxnet

 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Enthalpic