Infrastructure:Electric,Gas & Water

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The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has rejected a proposal to improve electric grid security, sending the proposal back to the North American Electric Reliability Corp. for revision. The group must strengthen its rules about how utilities should assess and protect power substations and systems, the ruling says.

Nearly 70 percent of critical infrastructure companies surveyed by Unisys and the Ponemon Institute suffered a security breach in the last year. According to the report, “Despite staggering statistics around the number of security breaches within these sectors, results showed that they gap between security concern and preparedness is overwhelming.”

Expert testimony before Congress warned that an electromagnetic pulse attack on our power grid and electronic infrastructure could leave most Americans dead.

The number of electrical outages affecting 50,000 or more people for at least an hour doubled during the decade up to 2012.  Most of the blackouts were caused by damage to large transmission lines and substations during extreme weather events, a new analysis from nonprofit Climate Central says. Michigan has the most outages, followed by Texas, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

In the latest development since the targeted attack on a southern California Pacific Gas & Electric Co. substation last April, PG&E is offering a $250,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the attack.

Thirty-five countries pledged Tuesday to turn international guidelines on nuclear security into national laws, including France, Britain, Canada and Israel. This move is aimed at preventing terrorists from acquiring nuclear material. The initiative also commits countries to open up their security procedures to independent review – a further step toward creating an international legal framework to mitigate risks of nuclear terrorism.

Copper wire thefts from highway street lights have decreased over the past few months following a December plea for help, an Indiana Department of Transportation official said Thursday. Crews are crediting counter-theft measures put in place with the Indiana State Police.

Federal energy regulators plan to impose new security rules on electric utilities to make sure they protect major substations and other facilities critical to the operation of the electric grid.

“Cybersecurity is a matter of homeland security,” said new Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, adding “one of the key goals of advancing this nation’s cybersecurity is building trust and relationships between the government and the private sector.”

In early January, residents of Charleston, W. Va., found that their tap water had a licorice smell and a strong aftertaste, and it resulted in a number of people reporting a variety of ailments.