Jarvis: Bill will protect local power grids from attacks
Political Opinion
After hearing about gunshots at two electrical substations which cut power to thousands of central North Carolina homes for several days in early December, state Rep. Ben Moss experienced the impact in his district of family farms, small businesses and sprawling golf courses and saw the area become like “a ghost town.”
Moss is urging fellow lawmakers to prioritize new legislation that would secure the state’s critical infrastructure when the legislative session begins in earnest this week. He’s among the first state legislators to propose power grid protections this year amid a surge in attacks on U.S. substations, primarily in the Carolinas and Pacific Northwest.
"This bill is important to increase accountability for persons with criminal intent who disrupt our energy infrastructure," Senator Steve Jarvis said.
Recent attacks in Moore County and Thomasville, North Carolina have exposed the vulnerability of the state's electrical grid, which security experts have long warned could be a target for the criminal activity of domestic extremists.
Lawmakers in at least two affected states — North Carolina and South Carolina — are eager to prevent an escalation in this type of activity.
“I don’t want to see anybody else go through what Moore (County) did,” said Moss, a 2024 candidate for state labor commissioner whose district saw a peak of more than 45,000 customers lose power. “When the power goes out, you don’t have heat, don’t have food, can’t get fuel or some medications, the people are unsafe.”
Moss is drafting legislation, along with myself and other Senators as a co-sponsors of Senate Bill 58, that would require utilities to provide 24-hour security at substations, which transform high-voltage electricity into the lower voltages that power communities. Security provisions would differ across grid sites, some of which are already gated with cameras while others are more exposed.
He considers the bill “a conversation opener” between lawmakers, utilities and security experts to help the General Assembly identify cost-effective defenses that wouldn’t drive up consumer prices. His call for increased surveillance comes as questions remain about the Moore County shootings. The FBI is still seeking information and no arrests have been made.
Utilities in South Carolina — where gunshots were fired near a Duke Energy facility but caused no damage days after the North Carolina shootings — are requesting that lawmakers follow our lead in NC's legislation by increasing penalties for intentionally destroying electrical infrastructure or other utility property.
A state Senate proposal would set a sliding scale based on how much damage is done — if it costs more than $25,000 for repairs to equipment and cover losses, the perpetrator could face up to 20 years in prison. This penalty is double the existing penalty. A maximum 25-year penalty would apply if anyone died or their health was endangered by a resulting outage.
