Updated Feb. 23 at 1150am to include video clip from White House Press Briefing
Texas is about to enter a second week of its natural-disaster emergency situation. Frigid temperatures have debilitated the State’s power-grid, its water delivery systems and even parts of its food-supply delivery systems.
Scrutiny of Texas leadership’s failings brings renewed scrutiny of actions taken on the very first day of Biden administration.
On January 20, the day Joe Biden was inaugurated, he signed an executive order revoking authorization for the Keystone Pipeline. More broadly, Biden’s EO looked to undo just about every executive order issued by President Trump and every deregulation order issued by him as well.
One of those, was the Securing the United States Bulk-Power System executive order (#13920) issued on May 1, 2020 by President Trump. That EO prohibited the purchase or installation of any bulk-power system equipment manufactured by a foreign entity. The goal of the EO was to reduce vulnerability of America’s critical infrastructure – specifically it’s power grid – to foreign hacking or cyber attacks.
“…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…foreign adversaries augments the ability of foreign adversaries to create and exploit vulnerabilities in bulk-power system electric equipment, with potentially catastrophic effects,” the EO reads.
Trump Bulk Power Grid EO
The order made it illegal for critical parts of the U.S.’ energy infrastructure to be manufactured or supplied by foreign adversaries. The declaration was widely seen as targeting China.
In 2019 an electrical transformer was seized at the Port of Houston by the Department of Homeland Security acting with the Department of Energy. It was on its way to the Washington Area Power Administration Ault, Colorado station. Instead, it was taken to the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
There has been no mention of it since.
The transformer was manufactured by the Jiangsu Huapeng Transformer Company in China. It is believed to have contained operational “backdoors” that could allow for the hacking of the transformer and thus operation of the power grid it was to be installed in. Intelligence gleaned from that case is largely believed to have been the impetus for Trump’s EO banning foreign-made transformers from being installed in the U.S.
Large Power Transformers (LPTs) move electricity at the high voltages necessary to carry it over long-distance lines. LPTs on the other end then dial down that high voltage to safer levels for delivery to and use by businesses and homes. They have been described as the “electrical equivalent of on- and off-ramps to major highways.”
LPTs are large and expensive. They weigh between 100 and 400 tons and can cost between $2 million and $7.5 million. They are also highly tailored to a customer’s specific needs which means that usually they are not interchangeable and backups are non-existent. As such, the offline-ing of a transformer can result in severe disruptions to a power grid – and for a long period of time.
While it is unlikely that networks themselves can be hacked, components within transformers, like digital monitoring devices and remote sensors, are extremely susceptible to cyber intrusion. These devices monitor power loads, equipment temperature and oil levels – functions that are vital for an LPT’s successful operation.
A large LPT was delivered and installed in the city of Houston, Texas, last July. It was manufactured by Jiangsu Huapeng Transformer Company. (Trump’s executive order applied only to projects begun after May 2020 so it did not apply to the Houston project.)
“Another JSHP’s happy customer,” a blurb on the project on Jiangsu’s website reads.
Similar projects have been completed or are underway in Las Vegas, New Jersey and New Mexico.
Biden’s Jan. 20 directive suspended the Bulk-Power System executive order for 90 days while the “Secretary of Energy and the Director of OMB…jointly consider whether to recommend that a replacement order be issued.” While it is unclear why the Biden administration feels the order needs to be replaced at all, most puzzling is why they didn’t prepare a replacement, or conduct their 90-day review, before suspending it.
ITN has a requested comment from the Biden White House on precisely that question and will update this post should we receive one. WH Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked the same question at a recent briefing and appeared to not have an explanation:
Reporter (1/25/2021): Biden “suspended a Trump Administration executive order that was aimed at keeping foreign countries, specifically China, from interfering in the U.S. Power grid… why did he do that?” pic.twitter.com/q6KamEMT41
— Eddie Zipperer (@EddieZipperer) February 20, 2021
In 2014 the Department of Energy found that there were six manufacturers of power transformers in the United States. China had over 30. The six U.S. manufacturers were able to fulfill only about 40% of the country’s demand, forcing state and local governments to look outside the U.S. for their needs.
Since 2009 and the Obama administration, over 200 transformers made in China were brought online in the U.S. Before 2009 none were.
Hackers acting out of China are believed to have made attempts to exacerbate (if not outright cause) American states of emergency. Last year the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA) issued a bulletin that listed nearly 40 U.S. contracting facilities as being the targets of attempted cyber hacks over a 2-½-month period.
The attempts were at the height of the Covid pandemic and targeted contractors that specialize in cybersecurity, aerospace, naval, health care, power generation, IT systems, telecommunications, risk analysis, and space systems. DCSA attributed the attacks to “Electric Panda,” a cyber-hacking group attributed to the Chinese government.